![TATT Chat Recap – February 10, 2022]()
Feb 11, 2022 | News
Welcome
David Feild, TATT Chairman
Guest Speaker
Dr. Gail Wilson Awan, CEO, Urban League of the Upstate
View presentation here. View a video recap here.
Resource Update
Teri Gilstrap, Anderson County Economic Development – ACED helps Anderson County to provide outreach and entice new companies to come to Anderson County or current companies to expand. Main focus is to help with availability of workforce. Of the 5 school districts, there are roughly 2,000 students who are actively looking for work. Currently, they’re helping to put employers in front of students to help them learn and show opportunities and workshops that are available to them. They help students figure out what interests them through workshops or work studies. Over the last 5-6 years, they were able to develop the Development Corporation of Anderson County to engage in community activities that promote and support economic development activities in Anderson County. To learn more, please visit https://www.acedsc.org/ .
Susan Anderson, Anderson Interfaith Ministries – AIM’s mission is to connect people with support, resources, and education to empower themselves to be self-sufficient. 5 programs: Pivotal Support, Hunger ministries, Women & Children’s program, Housing Rehabilitation, and financial stability center program. Through incredible partnerships throughout the upstate, AIM is able to create generational change. They also have an AMERICORP program to help bring 10 individuals into the non-profit world and help those around them. Visit www.aimcharity.org for more information.
Adjourn
David Feild
Save the Date!
TATT CHAT March 10, 2022 | 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Guest Speaker: Walt Lindsley, Site Director and General Manager for the Lockheed Martin Greenville Facility
Jan 13, 2022 | News
Welcome
David Feild, TATT Chairman
Economic Update – Video recap linked here | Presentation linked here 
Scott Baier, Professor and Department Chair of the John E. Walker Department of Economics within the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business at Clemson University Questions:
- Do you have stats on DTC Retail vs brick & mortar sales? – Stronger growth in DTC with brick & mortar slower to rebound.
- Is that also stimulated by inheritance – funds from deceased family?
- Is this unemployment national or state? – Answered in presentation
- Are those 3 MM lost jobs the ones that people have left the labor force completely? Are these a certain sector of people? Are some just retiring? – Answered in presentation
- If we seem to see so many companies advertising for workers, why does the employment number not rebound back toward the 131k number? – Answered in presentation
- Any metrics/categories come to mind where SC trends differ from the national trends? Either good or bad? – SC is trending with national numbers, and in some cases, SC is a bit ahead. Before the pandemic, SC numbers were better than the national average. Scott says it’s a continuation of SC being a place people want to be.
- Does this analysis show that the idea of a universal basic income that has been proposed by Andrew Yang and others, would likely hurt GDP growth and be inherently inflationary? – “Devil is always in the details.” It all depends on how it’s introduced: as a substitute for another entitlement programs, it would possibly help GDP. If it’s in addition to those programs, it would be more inflationary.
Resource Update
Rhonda Rawlings, Village Launch – Village Launch is an enterprise under Mill Village ministries to equip under-resourced entrepreneurs to help get word out about their business. There is a 10-week academy, 3-week get started workshops, 3rd Thursday market for women and minority owned businesses to build clientele. The VL mentorship program is to have 1 mentor per entrepreneur. Mentors attend the 10-week academy as well. Please contact for opportunities: Rhonda Rawlings (rhonda@millcommunity.org or 914-325-2187).
Larry Block, SCORE – SCORE is a group of mentors, with varying skill sets, to help entrepreneurs or relatively new business owners navigate the business world. Currently, the Upstate SCORE chapter does not have minority or female mentors. Please contact for opportunities: https://piedmont.score.org/ . Adjourn
David Feild
Dec 3, 2021 | News
Welcome
Terence Roberts, TATT Chairman
Upstate Economic Development Update
John Lummus, Upstate SC Alliance – Please see slides.
Questions:
- Are there specific areas of the country you are targeting for attracting talent?- In the beginning, they identified 10 specific areas in the country. They’re expanding to 20 areas to target. They’re working with GVLToday because they have newsletters in those areas as well.
- Are the industry leaders you target those within SC or those that are nationally focused? (Not answered)
- Do you happen to know how the healthcare industry measures up for the Upstate? Is there a growth of health promotion interventions or wellness centers (both corporate based and free standing)? – The upstate healthcare providers are excellent and involved. From the recruitment side, it’s always a positive about the upstate healthcare availability.
- Is there anything the Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem can do to support the locally-owned businesses that make a location more attractive to the companies you recruit?Yes – part of their initiative is to help entrepreneurs get set in this area. Working with other local organizations (NEXT, Clemson, etc) to help with this effort.
- How do we look as a region as far as product and infrastructure go for companies looking to come to the Upstate? – Product is starting to dwindle a bit; we need more from private and public sectors. There has been a huge increase in the national developers to look into our region to do just that. Infrastructure will be a huge thing for the upstate in the future.
Resource Update
Bedrija Jazic, Director Refugee of Refugee and Immigrant Services, Lutheran Services Carolinas – Lutheran Services Carolinas is a faith-based organization that provides a large array of services. This Refugee and Immigrant Services program was closed in 2017 as the population they were helping were largely settled. It will be reopening to help resettle about 100 refugees from all over the world in January 2022: this includes children and families. They’re currently in 8 military bases across the US. It involves case management, employment services, and safe/welcoming homes. Engaging local organizations is a vital part of resettling these individuals; please reach out to Bedrijia with interest.
Brandon Baughn, World Relief Upstate – World Relief Upstate is working internationally to focus on resettlement of immigrants and refugees who were facing persecution. Recently, many refugees have come to the Upstate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their average vetting process has taken up to 16 years. They provide case management, affordable housing, furnishing a home, connecting with social services, help with job placement, create a supportive community, and aiding in self-sufficiency.
Questions: Tell us what the primary needs your organizations are seeking and the gaps you are seeing within our communities. How can we as individuals help? – Primary need is affordable housing that is close to the public transportation system. As an individual, you can help in many ways – share information in your network, share who the refugees are so people are familiar with them to dispel fear, create connections to potential employers, become advocates for the positive benefits that refugees offer our community, advocate to local officials, volunteer, and as always, provide funding when needed.
Tommy Sinclair, Circles Greenville – Circles Greenville helps people completely emerge from poverty, not just through a crisis moment. Partner middle income people (allies) with people experiencing poverty (leader) to break a generational cycle of poverty. There is a 12- week training program and then the groups are matched. They commit to an 18-month relationship between the leaders and allies. They walk step-by-step through their goals and the walk of meeting those goals: increase in social capital, resource development, job goals, etc.
Question: Is the threshold for poverty based on gross or net? Gross.
Adjourn
Terence Roberts
Video Recap: https://youtu.be/2t032gMv8WM
Oct 22, 2021 | News
Welcome
Dean Hybl, Executive Director
Congressional Update
The Honorable Jeff Duncan, U.S. House of Representatives, South Carolina District 3
You can watch the remarks from Congressman Duncan in the session video here.
Resource Update
Cheryl Garrison, Launch Greenville – Launch GVL is a partnership program between the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and Greenville County Schools to connect high school junior and seniors to offer paid career opportunities. This is to create a talent pipeline for employers and allows students to clarify their career goals while making money.
Questions:
- How many students are in each cycle? Anywhere between 20-40
- Are there kids who are doing virtual work to adjust to the times? Some companies are doing hybrid but most want the student to have a connection to the work space.
Adjourn
Dean Hybl, Executive Director
