The S.C. legislature recognized leaders of the effort for the poorest part of the state to win a federal Promise Zone designation in a recently-approved resolution.
On April 28, the Obama Administration announced that Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties were part of a new program that will give pervasively poor places a better chance of getting federal grants and other aid. The region is the second rural area in the county to win the competitive designation.
The Senate resolution by state Sen. Brad Hutton, D-Orangeburg, with which the House concurred, recognized the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, the Center for a Better South, Chernoff Newman, the S.C. Association of Community Economic Development and the University of South Carolina at Salkehatchie for “its unifying vision to coordinate and win a federal Promise Zone designation that will create jobs, increase economic activity, improve educational opportunities, and reduce violent crime.”
The group is scheduled to meet with federal officials next week to move forward with the designation.
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