Five Working Groups. One Shared Vision.
Why does Charleston Thrives work across focus areas?
Charleston Thrives is built around a shared vision: “A thriving and connected community working together to provide opportunities for all.” Turning that vision into progress takes people who understand different parts of community life and a way for them to work together.
That is the purpose of five Charleston Thrives Working Groups: Government & Civic Engagement, Education, Economic Opportunity, Health & Well-Being, and Culture & Arts. Each brings together community members with knowledge, experiences, relationships, and ideas that can help move its focus area forward.
The Working Groups create space to look closely at important opportunities within each area. What could strengthen learning? Expand economic opportunity? Support health and well-being? Celebrate culture and the arts? Encourage civic participation? Those conversations help people identify priorities, connect resources, and turn ideas into action.
But community life does not fit neatly into five separate boxes. Education can connect to health and economic opportunity. Arts and culture can strengthen learning and community connection. Government and civic engagement can intersect with every focus area.
That is why the Working Groups do more than work alongside one another. Members come together in person each month to share what they are learning, exchange ideas, see connections across their work, and identify opportunities where multiple perspectives make efforts stronger.
Those intersections matter. They can help one Working Group see a resource another already knows about, connect people who may not otherwise meet, or recognize that an opportunity facing Charleston needs more than one kind of experience at the table.
This is one of the strengths of Making Progress Together: people can focus where they have knowledge and passion while staying connected to a larger community effort.
As future columns continue sharing progress from across the five Working Groups, each story is also part of one shared direction. Different focus areas. Different perspectives. One community working together toward the future Charleston has envisioned.
If you see progress happening across Charleston, we hope you will share it with me and with each other.
Email cheryl@sonedna.com.
Charleston Thrives is a community-led effort supported by SonEdna Foundation that brings people together to recognize progress already happening across Charleston and carry it forward together. Through shared experiences, conversations and participation, Charleston Thrives helps people see their place in the future of the community and how they can help shape it. Follow how Charleston Thrives is Making Progress Together: Facebook.com/sonednafoundation | Instagram.com/sonednafoundation | and at Linkedin.com/company/sonedna-foundation.
