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Greenwood, SC
The Partnership for a Greater Greenwood County, Inc. is a public/private umbrella organization established as a catalyst between resources and results. In 1999, as a result of the concerted efforts of the Greenwood County Economic Alliance, the community of Greenwood had, for the better part of 12 years, been an economic development success story. During this time, the unemployment rate in the county had dropped almost 40%, per capita income and retail sales had each doubled, and manufacturing, property taxes had increased to $10 million or one third of the county total.
In spite of these impressive accomplishments, however, astute community leaders recognized several disturbing trends that suggested there were weaknesses in the county’s manufacturing sectors. Because of these weaknesses, the leadership grew concerned about the ability of Greenwood County to attract new firms and investment in the future and, as a result, retained NCDS to test and fund an aggressive economic and community development initiative. The focus of the initiative was to restore Greenwood’s competitiveness in attracting new industry and to diversify its economy to include more knowledge-based jobs and companies.
The Objective: NCDS recommended the concept of a “holding company” or partnership of leaders that would be comprised of the program’s major investors, would set strategic direction for the initiative and would allocate funds to various agencies who would be instrumental in implementing the initiative, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Alliance. The holding company would also serve to eliminate perceived duplication of efforts between organizations, encourage efficient use of the community’s resources, and hold the implementing agencies accountable for achieving meaningful, measurable results and activities including:
- Creation of a minimum of 1,300 new and/or expanded jobs.
- Sustaining a 38% manufacturing employment ratio.
- Expansion of the white-collar professional employment base by 700 jobs.
- Development of materials, databases and other tools for recruitment of commercial and retail businesses.
- Empowerment of Greenwood County students to achieve grade level skills by fourth grade.
- Significant reductions of the school drop out rate.
- Meeting of employability standards and improvement of qualifications through skill enhancement for those willing to work, in order to ensure their readiness to work.
The Challenges: As a member-funded organization, the Economic Alliance had extremely limited resources to devote toward a sustained economic development program. Additionally, the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Alliance operated under different mission statements and did not communicate or work with each other rendering the two groups of community leaders splintered, unfocused and ineffective.
The Campaign: The Greenwood County campaign was an overwhelming success with the original goal of $3 million being surpassed even before the “public” kickoff. As a result, a challenge goal of $4 million was then set and it, too, was exceeded by $500,000.
The Results: Currently, the program is on track to achieve or exceed each of the goals and has even been expanded to include the development of a new cultural arts center and many downtown improvements. With recommendations from NCDS and the Partnership’s vision, proactive-approach and demonstrated commitment to economic development, Greenwood was selected by the state for the South Carolina Biotechnology Incubation Facility. This means that biotechnology and health sciences will now become an integral part of Greenwood’s diversified, knowledge-based economy.
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