Grant marks first UNC-CH USDA grant award in South Carolina
CREATE, an economic development center based at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, has been awarded a $149,947 grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development. This investment will support rural businesses and communities in the Lowcountry, South Carolina that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic or the Colleton and Hampton County tornadoes of Spring 2020. All work will focus on job creation and promoting rural economic development.
CREATE’s mission is to tackle the challenge of increased income disparities by generating shared economic prosperity through a combination of research, data analytics, homegrown interventions and policy development. Funding from USDA Rural Business Development grant will provide technical assistance to five rural businesses (100+ hours/business); and two business growth workshops for rural businesses (20+ businesses/workshop).
UNC-Chapel Hill’s CREATE initiative has a decade of experience providing high-quality, direct technical assistance to small and medium sized businesses in partnerships with local governments across rural South and North Carolina.
“By supporting the growth of small rural businesses we help create good jobs in places that need those jobs the most,” said Elizabeth Basnight, Assistant Director of Business Programs with CREATE.
According to the US Small Business Administration, small businesses employed about 46.9% of South Carolina’s private workforce in 2013. In that same year, small businesses created 17,585 new, net jobs with the smallest gains seen in firms employing 1 to 4 employees, which added 573 new jobs.
As a whole, South Carolina has seen growth and progress on the key metrics presented here over the last decade. However, this growth is not evenly distributed across the state. Many rural parts of the state experience continued economic stagnation, and there are pockets of distress in urban areas as well. Kellye Whitaker, CREATE’s Program Manager responsible for all work in South Carolina said, “There is an abundance of opportunity in the lowcountry to work with ambitious and driven business owners and add immeasurable value to help them grow their businesses.”
About CREATE
CREATE is an economic development center at UNC Chapel Hill that creates shared economic prosperity through thought leadership, real interventions, and policy development. CREATE envisions a community, state, nation and world where the economy works to equitably distribute resources and wealth; where individuals and communities are empowered to achieve their goals; and where all have opportunities to prosper. CREATE works towards this vision by generating innovative research and new data; delivering on-the-ground applied technical assistance; and informing local, state, national and international policy. CREATE operates six major programs, each focused on creating shared economic prosperity through thought leadership, technical assistance, and/or policy: NCGrowth; SmartUp; CREATE Prosperity Research Network; Homegrown Tools; Black Communities: A Conference for Collaboration; and AICER.