SCACED Receives a $25,000 Grant from Dominion Energy to Help Minority-Owned Businesses

Holy City Sinner

South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development (SCACED) announced today it received a $25,000 donation from Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation to help expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem for communities of color in South Carolina. 

As part of Dominion Energy’s $5 million commitment to social justice and community rebuilding, the grant will support SCACED’s ImpactSC program.

The program is an innovative and collaborative initiative designed to help existing minority-owned businesses recover from the economic effects of COVID-19 and to serve as a catalyst in the development of new and future minority-owned businesses.  This innovative and collaborative initiative will position those businesses as being increasingly important for sustainable economic growth in South Carolina.

Pandemic relief money is bringing internet access to places that didn’t have it

NPR Marketplace

We’ve been talking for more than a year now about how the internet is everything. And there are still places in the United States where there basically is none. For example, Allendale, South Carolina, a town of around 3,000 people that’s not far from the Georgia border. Officials have called it an internet desert. The state got $50 million in CARES Act money for broadband expansion and used some of it to install a wireless network in Allendale that runs at broadband speeds.

It’s run by a local internet service provider and free to residents through the end of October. I spoke with Jim Stritzinger, South Carolina’s broadband coordinator. He said the state went with wireless over fiber broadband because it’s fast to deploy. They went from nothing to offering service in 61 days. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Editorial: A gamble on expanding internet in Allendale may pay off across SC

The Post & Courier

No one knew for sure if the rural town of Allendale could get internet access by installing new equipment atop a state-owned TV tower. A state agency, to its credit, took a chance anyway, and its success already is paying off there and should serve as a model for connecting other parts of our state.

The S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff did the experimental project with $393,000 of CARES Act money, and it took only 61 days to retrofit two SCETV towers and get the first household online, then dozens more, with a special focus on households with school-age children. The internet provider, Revolution D, is offering free trials through Oct. 31, after which households will pay $34.95 a month.

Jim Stritzinger, broadband coordinator with the Office of Regulatory Staff, said the state’s ultimate goal is to get a wired internet connection to every household and business. The pandemic has shown how crucial that connectivity is to obtain health care, attend virtual school, apply for jobs, pay bills and much more. But running new wires across the state, especially its remote rural areas, will be a long, costly and complex job.

Landowner workshop covers methods to increase profitability, start agricultural businesses

The Sumter Item

Landowners in Clarendon County will be given the opportunity to discover various ways they could enhance their land, methods to increase profitability, start agricultural businesses and conservation planning through a webinar workshop hosted by South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development.

Clarendon County's virtual workshop that is hosted via Zoom will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. May 4. To register for the workshop, log onto https://sclandownerworkshop.eventbrite.com. The workshop will feature USDA District Conservationists from the Clarendon County region.

"Black farmers and landowners do not historically participate in these programs because of trust issues with the government," said SCACED's rural prosperity coordinator Ken Harvin. "However, South Carolina has made significant efforts to increasing funding opportunities to underserved populations."

Georgetown nonprofit hosts community garden, Earth Day celebration

Georgetown Times

AWLEYS ISLAND — To celebrate Earth Day, Carolina Human Reinvestment will host an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 17 at their community garden, 772 Petigru Dr. in Pawleys Island.

This open house will consist of informational sessions on recycling and composting, live music from WLGI 90.9 and an appearance from the Myrtle Beach Pelicans mascot.

Giany Guedjo, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the goal of the event is to let the community know it is there to serve them in any way they need.

“Not everybody knows who we are, so its going to be a place for us to share about the organization and also a place for people to come and do something different,” Guedjo said.

Carolina Human Reinvestment is an organization dedicated to serving youth through after school programing. Its main focuses include an after school program in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice called Teen After School Center, as well as a national program for youth affected by incarceration called the Amachi program.

How a Greenville native’s Soteria ministry helps men released from prison find their way

The Post & Courier

GREENVILLE — Joey Goodrich is halfway through the retraining and reentry program, and the Boston native already is thinking about staying here after he finishes later this year.

He came to Soteria Community Development Corp. with some vocational experience as a plasterer. Now he’s reclaiming wood from construction sites and transforming it into furniture. He’s learning to use his hands in new ways, along with other valuable skills: how to run a business, understand basic finance, manage government bureaucracy, collaborate with others.

About three years ago, Goodrich lost everything: his family, his job, his autonomy. He fell in with the wrong people, he said. He agreed to cash a forged check for somebody and split the proceeds. He got caught and sentenced to prison, where he spent 2½ years coping with his claustrophobia.

“It made me appreciate things so much more,” he said.

He decided to reach out for help. He wrote letters of inquiry to 13 organizations, but only one responded: Soteria.

Nonprofits struggling to find real estate share space, services

Charleston Regional Business Journal

With the area’s rising real estate prices, nonprofits often struggle to find affordable office space.

To save money on daily expenses, four organizations are joining forces to transform a wholesale furniture warehouse in North Charleston into the Opportunity Center.

The four nonprofits include: Homes for Hope based out of Greenville and the Lowcountry’s South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development, Center for Hiers Property and Increasing H.O.P.E. Financial Training Center.

The building will house new headquarters for all but Homes for Hope, the first Small Business Association Women’s Business Center to serve the tri-county and an entrepreneurial incubator to create an entrepreneurial eco system for the low-income community. Additional market value office spaces will be available to rent as well.

Upon completion at the end of the year, all four organizations will become equal owners of the building at 8570 Rivers Ave., aligning their offices and their similar missions to support the minority and low-wealth community. 

“I’m excited about us being an example of what true collaboration looks like,” Dorothea Bernique, Executive Director of Increasing H.O.P.E., said. “Many times in the nonprofit community we talk about it, but there’s never a whole lot of follow through, and we are an example.”

The idea for the Opportunity Center came about six years ago, SCACED CEO Bernie Mazyck said. Every few years his organization has been forced to relocate its headquarters because of a lack of affordability and once again they were scrambling to find a new office. 

Board member Don Ogelsby took an interest. He wanted to use his development expertise to solve the issue and help nonprofits in similar situations become more sustainable through owning their own corporate headquarters. 

Quintin's Close-Ups: Interview with Tory Liferidge

Holy City Sinner

Quintin Washington of Quintin’s Close-Ups recently spoke with Pastor Tory Liferidge, organizer of The Root of Soul: J19th Fest, a 3-day festival to celebrate African American emancipation and the vibrant culture that grew from Juneteenth. You can see the interview below.

After you watch, be sure to check out Washington’s other interviews here.