Carolina Community Forums

Forums encourage community dialogue and action across traditional barriers of race, income status, and geography.

Among the greatest challenges faced by communities in South Carolina is a legacy of divisions based on race, income status, and geography.  In many parts of our state, community conversations on critical problems are left unresolved because angry voices make the discovery of common ground and purpose impossible.  New schools and hospitals don’t get built.  Businesses looking to relocate in our state go elsewhere.  Old problems fester.  Old wounds never heal.

From 1996 to 2000, the Palmetto Project convened three statewide Citizens’ Summits on Race & Community to explore new ways help communities move forward.   Several thousand people participated in these gatherings and in subsequent county and regional meetings across the state.

Nearly unanimously, participants said they needed a new approach to community conversation and problem-solving.

In 2002 we responded to this call by creating a community-wide model program through which citizens of different backgrounds and diverse perspectives would come together each month to share a meal and get to know each other.

“Before the Forum,” said one participant in Hampton County, “we only knew each other through politics, and even then we were on opposite sides.  Now I can see how we all really want the same things, we just need to figure out the best ways to get there.”

At one point, there was a Forum-style program in more than half of the state’s 46 counties.  A number of these groups progressed to the point that they initiated community projects like creating green spaces and playgrounds, mentoring students afterschool, or working with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for those without adequate shelter.

Today a number of those groups still meet.  Many of their members have gone on to serve in public office or other positions of responsibility in their communities.   Even their children have become friends and continue to work for effective public dialogue and civic engagement.