Who We Are

Lowcountry Equitable Land & Resource Trust

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit community economic and workforce development advocacy group focused on developing and executing community-based, vertically-integrated market production and distribution, land retention/home ownership and affordable housing initiatives for Black Americans in Saint Helena and Beaufort County, South Carolina. We work with legislative bodies, other grassroots organizations and private industry to develop strategies for economic growth and independence for Black American citizens and their families.

Freedmen Family Homestead Initative

Lowcountry Equitable Land & Resource Trust works to reverse the generational impact of redlining, predatory lending, employment and industry exclusion on Black Americans descended from chattel slavery. The Lowcountry ELRT Freedmen Family Homestead Initiative™ purchases development rights from landowners interested in monetizing heir's property by converting a portion of their family compound into vertically integrated cohousing pocket community featuring a community permaculture garden and common house accessory structure for gatherings and meetings.

Lowcountry Children's Mobile Literacy

In 1956 two Black women, Wilhemina Barnwell and Ethel Bailey, started the FIRST BOOKMOBILE in Beaufort County, SC using their personal vehicles to deliver books from the Laura Towne Library at Penn Community Center to children on Saint Helena Island. Since that program has ended in Black neighborhoods, literacy rates have fallen exponentially. Today, less than half of the children enrolled at St Helena Elementary can read at or above their grade level. Learning loss due the COVID 19 pandemic has hit the Underserved rural Black community especially hard. Therefore, additional actions must be taken to address this disparity as quickly and directly as possible. Mrs' Barnwell and Bailey, understood the specific needs of the Underserved Black community in Saint Helena and Beaufort County and because of their brilliant innovation, reading literacy rates were above average.

Our service is convenient, free and open to all levels of readers! We will read books at or above students' grade levels; in doing so, we will accelerate student learning. Additionally, when fully grown, our book mobile will transform into a resource-mobile-- collaborating with community organizations to deliver services and resources when necessary.

Lowcountry ELRT Workforce Development

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