In 2005, the Palmetto Project’s emphasis in its youth initiatives was on student-led strategies to address campus violence, bullying, and social alienation.  Surveys show that as many as one-third of S.C. students fear for their physical safety at school.  Many of these efforts included broader student involvement in the community, as well as encouragement for adults to become more active in supporting local schools.

Youth Unity South Carolina continues to serve as our primary channel for introducing innovative programming and training opportunities for young people, particularly in larger schools with increasingly diverse student populations.   In this program we provide training and technical support to student-teacher task forces dedicated to improving the social and academic climate on their campuses.  Schools with task forces have shown a decline in the number of incidences of aggressive behavior.

Challenge Day is a new initiative to create healthier schools through a unique style of engagement of both adults and students. The program challenges students and community leaders to see the unrealized possibilities for their schools, and develop strategies for making them happen.  We have previewed the program in other states, and are making it available at four pilot sites in South Carolina in 2006.  You can check it out at www.challengeday.org.

Low Country Aid to Africa is an ecumenical faith-based initiative to use resources from South Carolina to support communities in Africa in their response to the continent’s ever-widening social and health crises.  To date, local leaders have raised $28,000 to help these communities keep families of orphaned children in South Africa together, and build a wing on a hospital in Namibia.

According to LCAA chair Lucille Whipper, the effort is all-volunteer so that every dime

raised by the group goes directly to assisting people in need.  “We stay in close touch with

the groups we are helping so we can see exactly what the resources from the Low Country

are doing in Africa,” she said.  The group’s primary source of income is an annual jazz

event at Charleston’s Gaillard Auditorium, which normally draws more than 500 people.

According to some historians, nearly forty percent of African American in the United

States can trace their roots to Africa by way of South Carolina.  Dr. Whipper believes

LCAA offers the state an opportunity to affirm those ties, and better educate the

people of our state about their history and the current challenges faced by those living

on the African continent.

In 1994, the Palmetto Project’s PeaceWorks initiative delivered more $1 million in medical equipment and supplies from South Carolina to the besieged city of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia.   This internationally recognized effort enabled the city’s hospital to stay open for the winter, and its water system to keep from freezing.

The OMEGA Project has become an important asset to community leaders wrestling with local problems in which race and culture seem to be factors. Representatives from more than twenty-eight counties have participated in this unique program, which offers intensive training to those communities looking to improve the quality of public dialogue and personal trust among citizens of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. The cornerstone of the program is an ever-expanding number of “study circles” of up to twelve citizens who meet in eight two-hour sessions to examine critical issues in their communities.

Thanks to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and matching funds from the state legislature, the Palmetto Project is now able to make this unique program available to every community in South Carolina.More than 500 civic leaders from 35 counties have participated in these trainings. More importantly, they have implemented the lessons they learned by leading civic dialogues and cross-cultural events at schools, churches and synagogues, and incorporating our approach in their businesses and local governments.