NOBLE: Promise Zone offers long-term hope

SC Promise Zone

Charleston businessman Phil Noble offered the following observations in August 2015 in a column picked up by newspapers throughout South Carolina.  An excerpt:

PromiseZone_logoOne of the most shameful and enduring problems in South Carolina is the huge gap between the prosperous/urban and poor/rural areas of our state. Most of these poor/rural counties are along Interstate 95, dubbed The Corridor of Shame – and it is.

But some recent big news offers real, long-term hope for the southern part of the corridor. It’s called the Promise Zone. Read more →

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S.C. Promise Zone to bring more to area

SC Promise Zone
Jasper County residents discuss big ideas in July.

Jasper County residents discuss big ideas in July.

Excerpted from The (Beaufort, S.C.) Island News, 8/6/15:

90,000 residents. 28% in poverty and 15% unemployment. This is reality for the South Carolina Lowcountry Promise Zone, a federally-designated region encompassing portions of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper Counties. Through the combined efforts of partners, supporters and local communities, the SC Promise Zone aims to bring millions of dollars in federal funding to spur economic development and improve quality of life for the region. Read more →

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Hundreds attend Promise Zone meetings

SC Promise Zone
Jasper County residents talk during the July 16 Promise Zone meeting

Jasper County residents talk during the July 16 Promise Zone meeting

Here are some more recent news stories about the July 8-16 town hall meetings on the South Carolina Lowcountry Promise Zone held in a six-county region.  Some excerpts:

Big crowd attends Promise Zone meeting, The (Walterboro) Press and Standard, July 23, 2015

“The Promise Zone is not a big pot of money out there waiting for us to pick it up,” Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South told the standing-room-only crowd at U.S.C. Salkehatchie last Thursday morning.

“But there is a big pot of money out there — we just have to work to get it. We have to work together to get it,” Brack added at the start of the Colleton County workshop attended by approximately 140 people.

Brack and the Center for a Better South worked with the SouthernCarolina Alliance to put together the successful application to have a portion of Colleton County and five other Lowcountry counties designated a Promise Zone by the federal government.

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