Greenville picked up the pace on affordable housing in 2022. What’s next?

The Post & Courier

GREENVILLE — In 2022, the Greenville Housing Fund helped add and preserve more affordable units in Greenville than in the previous four years combined. 

Since January, the nonprofit has contributed to projects providing a total of 486 affordable residences throughout the city, compared to 481 between the fund’s launch in 2018 and 2021. 

Housing Fund Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager Tina Belge said the spike in activity over the past 12 months marks a major step forward for her organization.

Lowcountry cities honor Gullah Geechee Group founder and child advocate

Live 5 News

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A pillar in the community was honored by community members in Charleston and North Charleston on Monday. They proclaimed Monday, Nov. 7 as Johanna Carrington Day.

Carrington founded the Gullah Geechee Group, hosting events and teaching about the heritage of the Geechee people across the Southeast.

The Jenkins Institute for Children, on Azalea Road in North Charleston, is known for educating black orphans during segregation and continues to be a source of community programs.

Carrington organized educational opportunities for students to participate in music, math and reading as the executive director at the institute for children for 14 years. She was instrumental in launching similar programs at Mary Ford Early Learning Center and Septima Clark Academy.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu Tours Lowcountry to Discuss Community Reinvestment Opportunities, Needs

Charleston Regional Business Journal - BizWire

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, today visited rural communities of the South Carolina Lowcountry as well as North Charleston to meet with community stakeholders and local businesses to discuss community reinvestment needs and opportunities. President & CEO of the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development, Bernie Mazyck, led the Acting Comptroller on a tour of Lowcountry to learn about successful examples of community reinvestment and encourage more lending, investment, and banking services in local businesses and nonprofits.

The community tour included stops at Boogie’s BBQ restaurant in Hollywood and Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Cooperative in Johns Island. The tour also included a visit to an artisan beverage company, Estuary Beans and Barley, on Johns Island, founded and led by Army veteran and local entrepreneur and nonprofit leader Scott Harrison. The tour concluded with a lunch and roundtable bringing together over 40 bankers, community leaders, business owners, and government officials to discuss the reinvestment and banking services needs of the community.

WCBD News 2
Michael Hsu, who serves as the Acting Comptroller of Currency, visited several locations throughout Charleston County Friday, where he spoke with local administrators and business owners about financial needs in the Lowcountry.

“To come here and to really talk to folks directly,” Hsu said, “makes a really, really big difference. That’s really, really impactful.”

Click here to view full article. 


The Post & Courier
On his first trip to Charleston, Hsu said it was important to leave Washington, D.C., to get out in the field and hear on-the-ground challenges and how his agency can help.

“There is a lesser degree of (financial) security in rural areas,” Hsu said. “Anytime there is change, there are also some distinct opportunities. How do you preserve the character of the rural area and how do you make it equitable? Access to credit makes a big difference.”
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Reestablish statewide Individual Development Account program

Greenwood Index-Journal
By Kristi King-Brock
SCACED Board Chair & Executive Director of Anderson Interfaith Ministries,

Once one of the most popular and impactful programs offered through nonprofits and community development groups across the state, the statewide Individual Development Account (IDA) program was offered for 20-plus years before its funding was exhausted in 2020. Since then, South Carolina families and individuals have persevered through a global pandemic and are currently facing historic economic and financial pressures. Now that the state legislature will be convening this fall to decide how to allocate state fiscal recovery funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), an opportunity presents itself for the legislature to provide much needed boost and strengthen the financial stability of South Carolina’s citizens and families through reestablishing a statewide IDA Program.

The South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development (SCACED), an organization which I’m proud to serve as board chair, earlier this year proposed their American Rescue Plan Economic Equity Agenda, including a recommendation of $10 million be allocated to fund a statewide IDA Program through the state Department of Social Services of state Department of Commerce.

The IDA Program is a 3:1 matched savings account program that allows individuals to use their savings and match money toward any of three productive assets: a home, a small business, or post-secondary education. Participants are required to save their funds and participate in financial literacy education and asset-based trainings before having access to their match funds.

Ribbon Cutting Set for The Opportunity Center: A New Collaborative Workspace including Business Incubator & Training Facility

NORTH CHARLESTON — Four nonprofits are now housed under the same roof, but the groups are doing more than simply sharing real estate.

The organizations at the recently opened Opportunity Center also share a similar vision: Make the space a one-stop shop for economic services that can lead to generational wealth for underserved entrepreneurs.

That vision can be accomplished as the four organizations — South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development, the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, Increasing H.O.P.E and Homes of Hope Inc. — pool their resources and work together, said Bernie Mazyck, CEO of SCACED.

ABC News 4
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — After breaking ground over a year and a half ago, a center aimed at helping Lowcountry residents with their finances finally had its grand opening on Thursday.

The Opportunity Center is one of the first facilities of its kind and will give a chance for financial development by creating what officials call an “entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Click here to read full article.

CRBJ BizWire
North Charleston, SC – Monday, March 21, 2022: A Ribbon Cutting Ceremony including an open house, food, and tours of the building will take place on Thursday, March 31st at 11:00 a.m. at The Opportunity Center! The new facility is located at 8570 Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. Officials from the involved charitable organizations as well as other dignitaries will be on hand to answer questions and help demonstrate the impact the facility will have on the region.

Click here to read full article.

Charleston City Paper
Officials with North Charleston’s new facility, The Opportunity Center, cut the ribbon on the building Thursday morning during an open house that offered food and tours of the building to guests.

The Opportunity Center, a new concept for a nonprofit-led economic development hub, was built in 2019 out of a former 31,250-square-foot furniture store off Rivers Avenue. 

Click here to read full article.

SCACED & SCORH Announce 2022 Hoop House Grant Awardees

[Charleston, SC] March 8, 2022 – South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development (SCACED), in partnership with South Carolina Office of Rural Health (SCORH), announced today twelve (12) awardees of the 2022 Hoop House Grants.

The grant awards were offered through South Carolina’s Health Equity Initiative, part of a national project the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported by funding through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

This year’s awardees span across the state and a variety of industries, ranging from churches, nonprofit community organizations, schools, municipalities, and farms. This year’s awardees, listed alphabetically, include:

  • Care Connections: Veggie Cupboard Community Garden

  • Dragonfly Creek

  • Deer Groove Farms

  • Dream Enterprise and Company

  • Gullah Farmers Cooperative

  • Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church

  • Pressley Farms

  • Stajen Farms

  • Stephanie Smart-Gittings

  • Victory Gardens International

  • Willowrock Farm

  • Windy Hill Farm

The objective of this year’s grant program was to make available twelve (12) single grant awards in the amount of $10,000 each for the establishment and expansion of hoop houses in low-income, rural communities. The Hoop House grants offer training paired with funding to support minority and veteran producers in furthering the production of fruits and vegetables as an important source of fresh food and nutrition to communities lacking access to locally grown produce.

“SCACED is proud to collaborate with these community advocates for sustainable locally grown produce,” said SCACED program associate Ken Harvin. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact these community gardens will have on their communities.”

About SCACED (www.scaced.org)

SCACED is a coalition of over 150 individuals and organizations who support the development of healthy and economically sustainable communities throughout South Carolina. For over 25 years, SCACED and its members have worked collaboratively to build wealth and create economic opportunity for all SC residents including a focus on minority communities and other groups who have been left out of the economic mainstream. 

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SCACED & SCORH Announce 2022 Community Garden Grant Awardees

[Charleston, SC] March 2, 2022 – South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development (SCACED), in partnership with South Carolina Office of Rural Health (SCORH), announced today twenty-one (21) awardees of the 2022 Community Garden Grants.

The grant awards were offered through South Carolina’s Health Equity Initiative, part of a national project the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported by funding through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

This year’s awardees span across the state and a variety of industries, ranging from churches, nonprofit community organizations, schools, municipalities, and farms. This year’s awardees, listed alphabetically, include:

  • Bell Von Dur Harv

  • Blackville Community Development Corporation

  • Carolina Human Reinvestment

  • Chesterfield-Marlboro Economic Opportunity Council

  • DOW Farm

  • Ebenezer AME Church

  • City of Florence

  • Greater Lake City Community Resource Center

  • Human Foundation

  • Lynwood Family Farm

  • Mount Zion Baptist Church

  • Palmetto Works Community Development Corporation

  • Rambling Rosa Farm

  • Seasoned Seafood/Benefit Corporation

  • Sumter County Master Gardener Association

  • Synergy Garden at Presbyterian Fellowship

  • Veggie Cupboard Community Garden & Greenhouse

  • Victory Gardens International

  • Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council

  • WhistleBritches Farm & Garden

  • Winthrop University

The objective of this year’s grant program was to make available twenty (20) single grant awards in the amount of $3,000 each for the establishment and expansion of community gardens in low-income, rural communities. The Community Garden grants offer training paired with funding to support minority and veteran producers in furthering the production of fruits and vegetables as an important source of fresh food and nutrition to communities lacking access to locally grown produce.

About SCACED (www.scaced.org)

SCACED is a coalition of over 150 individuals and organizations who support the development of healthy and economically sustainable communities throughout South Carolina. For over 25 years, SCACED and its members have worked collaboratively to build wealth and create economic opportunity for all SC residents including a focus on minority communities and other groups who have been left out of the economic mainstream. 

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SC nonprofit gets $2.5M to help minority and women-owned businesses

The Post & Courier

NORTH CHARLESTON — Hundreds of South Carolina’s minority-owned businesses are expected to benefit from millions of dollars being funneled through an economic development nonprofit.

The South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development has been awarded $2.5 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Community Navigator Pilot Program to support companies owned by minorities, women and veterans.

The money will provide an impressive amount of support to disadvantaged entrepreneurs, helping them pivot toward prosperity, said Bernie Mazyck, president and CEO of SCACED.

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