Welcome—Terence Roberts, TATT Chairman
Sean Dogan, Interim CEO of the Urban League of the Upstate
Guest Presentation—Sean Dogan, Interim CEO of the Urban League of the Upstate
- Mission: advance equity by empowering black and other underserved communities through advocacy, education and economic stability
- Organizational assessments with Stan Davis, helped map out where we were and next steps for where we’re going.
- One of 90 affiliates of the national Urban League, HQ in NYC.
- Represents Greenville, Spartanburg, Union, and Greenwood Counties
- 6 programs:
- Right Step Juvenile Diversion—98% success rate
- Project Ready—high school program to get students ready for college, work, and life
- Level Up (foster care students)
- 21st Century Learning Center
- Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program
- affordable housing—financial education
- We need more about law enforcement doing more – creating friendships and participating. Community policing. Also brought someone to them they would not have met otherwise. Click here for a video of a great example of community policing, with some help from basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal
Click here for Sean’s presentation
TATT Updates
Dean Hybl, TATT Executive Director
- Busy week: Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem met Wednesday, Senior Issues group met earlier Thursday, Upstate Mobility Alliance will meet Friday
- Next TATT Chat with Jim Shew, Vice President—Employee Benefits, Marsh & McLennan Agency, September 10th—register here
- Networking time 20 minutes prior to the meeting on upcoming TATT Chats! Sign on early to network with friends and colleagues.
County Updates
Anderson (Blake Sanders, Mayor of West Pelzer):
- giving away masks
- Pelzer/West Pelzer continue to more forward with economic development
- Pelzer going through branding/marketing/web strategy
- Powdersville—Dolly Cooper Park, going through master plan
- 2500 feet of trail, new kayak launch, etc. A regional draw for this part of the county, spurs outdoor recreation
- More people out walking. More students walking to school. People are asking for more sidewalks.
Greenville (Shawn Bell, City of Fountain Inn):
- new residential construction going strong
- new businesses opened in the last few months
- class A industrial park construction moving along
- several restaurants in city limits have had best grossing sales in May or June—very encouraging to see
- city of Fountain Inn has seen challenges with 16 staff testing positive for COVID, hope to reopen to the public soon
- events canceled, but still doing virtual city council meetings
Laurens (Alesia Carter, United Way of Laurens County):
- mask giveaways because people didn’t seem to have them
- food drives every week with a lot of participation, much needed—400K pounds of food
- youth box giveaways in 4 different locations
- food bank still drive through, still seeing a lot of need
- trying to get people to complete the census
- school supplies drive
Oconee (Libby Imbody, Main Street Walhalla):
- started March 1st, has been in survival mode.
- what makes us unique has helped us be resilient
- slow but steady stream of tourists because of outdoor assets
- small events that get people on the street
- some merchants have had record June/July
- working on 5 historic properties
- grant received for a walkway around the perimeter of the commercial districts, which will connect to Stumphouse Mountain
Pickens (Allison Fowler, Pickens County Parks, Recreation and Tourism):
- new marketing and branding plan just released a few weeks ago, eager to get started rolling it out
- people flocking to the outdoors, so parks have been very busy
- hired a couple of new positions
- new announcements about old mills being bought for development