The South Carolina Promise Zone
On April 28, 2015, The Obama Administration announced that the Southern Carolina region of South Carolina had been named one of eight Promise Zones across the country. The Southern Carolina region was the only rural region in the country to receive the designation in 2015.
Promise Zone designation will allow our region to meet the challenges of our rural communities through partnerships between the federal government and local leaders to increase economic activity, improve educational opportunities, leverage private investment, reduce t crime, enhance public health and address other priorities identified by the community. Through the Promise Zone designation, these communities will work directly with federal, state and local agencies to give local leaders proven tools to improve the quality of life in some of the country’s most vulnerable areas.
“The Promise Zone designation for our region creates exciting opportunities for our people,” said Southern Carolina Alliance President and CEO Danny Black. “As the lead regional organization in this effort, we look forward to working with our partners at the municipal, county, regional, state and federal levels, in both the public and private sectors, to identify, pursue and implement programs that will bring real economic development, community development and workforce training opportunities to our communities.”
The Promise Zone communities were selected from 123 applications from 36 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. Each urban, rural, and tribal Promise Zone applicant was asked to put together a clear description of how the Promise Zone designation would accelerate and strengthen the community’s own efforts at comprehensive community revitalization.
Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance is the lead regional organization in implementing the Promise Zone program. All Promise Zones will receive priority access to federal investments that further their strategic plans and federal staff on the ground to help them implement their goals.
As part of the Southern Carolina Alliance Promise Zone Initiative and made possible by a grant from the US Department of Agriculture, start-ups and growing small businesses that have experienced difficulty obtaining funding, may apply for an SCA Microloan.