Programs and Resources
Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE)
Since the 1980s, Penn Center’s PACE program has fostered youth development programs for Sea Island children ages 8 weeks through 17 years. Instruction focuses on education, social, environmental, and cultural development and enrichment, and provides tutoring for 4th through 8th-grade students.
The PACE Enrichment Center is not just a childcare facility, we are an early childhood education center, dedicated to providing a learning environment that enhances the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and creative development of your child.
Our mission is to offer early education and childcare services at affordable rates for all our families. Our tuition is built on a sliding scale, offering those who need assistance the opportunity for discounted tuition.
Our goal is to build a solid foundation for each child to build upon, leading to a lifetime of educational and personal growth and success.
Praise for PACE
Thank you, Penn Center, and staff, for the lunch program on the behalf of my family and community. We Thank you for the big help during this pandemic. Ya’ll are heroes of our community. Thank you.
— Janie
I appreciate the dedication of the women of Penn Center who spent their summer providing lunches for the children on St. Helena Island and surrounding areas. These lunches may have been a convenience for me , but I know many children to whom this was a necessity. Providing for those in need or less fortunate is a charge placed on us all by the Most High God. Thank you for time spent in preparing, packaging, and delivering a little bit of love, during these tough, and perilous times! We need more! I know the government has provided the money to supply the food, but it takes a whole lot of Love, CHARITY, PATIENCE, and COMPASSION! (They must be teachers). Thank you, Ladies of Penn Center, for being a helping hand! You are soldiers against the struggle and every little bit weigh tons.
— Natasha
Land Use and Environmental Education (LUEE) Program
To combat the threat of rapid commercial development and land loss along the Gullah Geechee coastal communities, the Penn Center’s leadership led to the institutionalization of one very important component of community sustainability—land ownership and retention.
In 1972, Penn established the Land Use and Environmental Education (LUEE) Program to assist native islanders with issues of land retention and stewardship through education and legal services. As a result, the Center negotiated a unique landmark proviso with Beaufort County to institute an heir’s property exemption to preserve tens of thousands of acres of black-owned land. Penn also led the effort in land-use planning by working with Country officials and environmentalists to carve out zoning laws to protect and preserve valuable cultural and environmental assets on St. Helena Island and other parts of the county.
More recently, under its environmental stewardship program, the Penn Center has placed more than 250 acres of its 500 acres in a conservation easement with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust. In 1974, the Penn Center became a National Historic Landmark District.
For more information about the LUEE program, please send us an email at info@penncenter.com. To expedite processing, please include "LUEE" or "Land Use and Environmental Education Program" in the subject line.
Penn Center recently implemented a project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): “Capacity Building for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers in South Carolina.” A series of workshops introduced participants to marketing practices, Good Agriculture Practices (GAP), and Good Handling Practices (GHP) for those participants who intend to sell fresh produce at farmers markets and to schools, military bases, and hospitals. To provide participants with hands-on and marketing opportunities, Penn Center converted a barn on its campus into a Farmers Market Demonstration and Education Center.
The Demonstration and Education Center helps beginning farmers become certified in GAP and GHP, so that they can expand the market for their products and take advantage of the USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program. Check Penn Center’s news and updates for information about future workshops and demonstrations.
The USDA offers resources for those new to farming:
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services
Including the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program:
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/value-added-producer-grants
Education & Resources for Small & Beginning Farmers
Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District
Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District is a partnership between Penn Center and the University of Georgia (UGA) Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project is centered around three major programs: annual artist residencies; summer research residencies for students at UGA and public and private partner institutions throughout the southeastern U.S.; and community conversations on issues of relevance to the residents and institutions of the Sea Islands region.
The project period runs through June 2025. The leadership for this partnership includes a research coordinator to facilitate communications and planning between the Willson Center and the Penn Center, and a coordinator to provide input for community-engaged projects such as the student summer research residencies and public conversations. A twenty-three-member national advisory board consisting of scholars, museums and archives professionals, administrators, and community leaders, as well as a small steering committee composed of leadership from the Penn Center, Willson Center, and Emory University, meet regularly to discuss programming.
For more information about this collaboration, please visit penncenter.uga.edu. Contact the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at 706-542-3966 or wcha@uga.edu.