Heart & Soul celebrates success at Arras Foundation event.
Although there may be discord in the community, as there might be in any small town or city, three groups in three areas are practicing unity and speaking of things like hope, connection, dreams and “playing the long game.”
Those groups are the citizen-driven Heart & Soul organizations in Fort Lawn, Kershaw and Great Falls.
Just recently, the Arras Foundation, which is a partner with Heart & Soul, celebrated their accomplishments at a “Town Gathering.”
Fort Lawn and Kershaw were the two first areas — areas, not municipalities (because each of the Heart & Soul “service area” encompassed more than just the municipalities at the “heart” of each of them) in South Carolina to adopt the Heart & Soul community model back in 2016. Great Falls became a Heart & Soul community in 2021.
Recently their mentors with the Arras Foundation, as well as local and county officials and Sara Lightner, a Senior Program Manager with the national Community Heart & Soul organization, got to hear a report on the highlights and the impacts of the three communities under the Heart & Soul process.
In her opening remarks, national Community Heart & Soul Senior Manager Lightner told the team members of the Fort Lawn, Kershaw and Great Falls H&S initiatives they were some of the first Heart & Soul programs in the southeast, and in fact, in South Carolina. That sort of position means the challenges and successes of the local Heart & Soul communities have had a far-reaching impact.
“I was talking to one of the Fort Lawn members and said, ‘did you know that your photos is on the cover of our Phase III workbook?’
“And it’s true — the lessons that we learned from all of you and the stories and the experiences in (the three communities) are the things that have helped us to help other communities across the United States. We have used the stories and the experiences, the successes and the challenges to help us better understand how we can work with other communities across the U.S.’
“As some of the very first Heart & Soul communities, and some of our first communities in the South and more specifically, our very first communities in South Carolina, you have really helped other communities across the United States, even though you may not have known that, by the stories that we have been able to share from all of you.” An improved sense of community.
Libby Sweatt-Lambert, the executive director of the Fort Lawn Community Center told the assembled crowd that one of the biggest highlights for the H&S program in Fort Lawn was that they broke down the silos that everyone was operating in. “That is something we talked about during the entire process, and we continue to talk about in Fort Lawn. (We did the entire zip code.) So we had silos all around the zip code. People didn’t speak to each other. People didn’t interact with each other. “People talk now. You walk into the Cake Lady or the Wagon Wheel, and we see people from the lake talking to people from the trailer park, and that’s a big deal,” Sweatt-Lambert said.
“It was just great, seeing the relationships that were built, the relationships that continue. Because we’ve been at this for a while. And the people are still involved, still doing. We can call when we need help and say ‘would you help us with this?’ and people are in it,” she said.
Another success is “our community started getting outside of the community — we have people serving on county boards, we have people who engage in different activities. We have people representing the people of Fort Lawn, and that was a huge improvement for us,” she said. Those involved in the H&S process have also learned to listen, to value each other and what people say and then work together with them,” Sweatt-Lambert said.
This is sometimes a difficult process, but if you work at it, it works. She said a big success for H&S in Fort Lawn is people who previously were sitting on the sofa all the time since retirement, became very active in the community. Others who have now retired find they have time to participate in H&S and have opportunities to do more. Heart & Soul at Fort Lawn has given the community a voice, Sweatt-Lambert said.
“We have an impact on how Fort Lawn grows. We see growth coming our way; we have ideas about what we want. We don’t want a McDonald’s, we want a nice, quaint restaurant. We want to be like a downtown Fort Mill, where people come for special things,” she said. Through the H&S story gathering process, a series of boards were drawn up that show the projects and ideas, the “top vote-getters” that the community thinks can make a better Fort Lawn and surrounding areas.
Sweatt-Lambert said that numerous government and service entities have made copies of these boards and the concepts on them. And those entities are helping to make the ideas realities. “And now we’re seeing checkmarks on some of those ideas — checks show up beside things, and that means it’s accomplished,” she said. Sweatt-Lambert said the hope for the Fort Lawn Heart & Soul program is, “is that the growth occurs the way the people of Fort Lawn want it: not outsiders making decisions, but the people of Fort Lawn. We hope that our greatly improved sense of community continues that we continue interacting with each other; we continue working to uplift the people of the 29714, zip code. “Those are easy things, but they’re big hopes,” she said.
Shelley Price is the executive director of GRASP (the Great Falls Referral and Assistance Service Program). She is also a Great Falls Heart & Soul board member. “We began Heart & Soul in 2021. I can remember that first meeting where we all came together at the Greater Great Falls building, where we all came together, and the excitement of the residents. That spark that was ignited that day still lives,” Price said. “When we said we played the “long game,” we meant it. But Heart & Soul is still fun, we are still excited. We are excited to have our new Project Coordinator, Elizabeth Bowen, with us, she’s breathed new life into this project, and we are thankful to have her be our kind of “fearless leader.”
“We are proud about the relationship Great Falls H&S has with our elected officials (the Town of Great Falls is our fiscal sponsor) so they are very involved in Heart & Soul, which is important to us. One of our overarching goals as a team was to strengthen the relationship between our elected officials, and community members; this is still very important to us. And we’re going to continue to focus on that, as the town as a whole works through some challenges,” she said.
“That is something I feel like H&S can really help with: bringing the community together, and strengthening those relationship, so we can what everyone wants (for the community).”
Great Falls is currently in the Phase II of the process, listening and story gathering. Chester County Councilman Mike Vaughn, a Heart & Soul team member, has been assisting Program Coordinator Elizabeth Bowen to ensure that “voices that are missing” in the H&S process are getting heard, Price said.
“That’s key — a key part of Heart and Soul is really bringing as many voices as possible to the table. So we’re really trying to see who are we missing, and bring the table to them. That as kind of an idea we had, to really go to the people that aren’t normally invited to the table, or maybe they are invited, but they don’t really feel welcome. “Our goal has been to bring the table to them. H&S team member Wytricia Mack organized a cookout in Sunset Park. That was very successful even for the community that’s hasn’t always come to the table, that are not always asked what do they think. We are excited about that event and we want to do more of that,” said Price.
She reported the Great Falls Heart & Soul team recently met with the students at Great Falls High School and executive director Bowen has met with art teachers to get their students to express what they love about their town through the medium of art. “All these different activities are all about really reaching the voices and finding out what do the people in Great Falls want? What do they love, what do they hope and what is our shared vision?”
Price said she has a personal vision about what the abandoned Mill #3 site should become, but “that is not what Heart & Soul is about. Heart & Soul is not about my vision, or even that of team members Mike Vaughn or Allison Howe, or of Great Falls Mayor Josh Brantley’s or town council’s vision: it is really about finding the shared vision. What does everyone want? What does everyone think about Great Falls?
And that is why Heart & Soul is so important. We have to come together and find our shared voice,” Price said.
The shared voice will lead to a vision statement that will be used to guide the elected officials.
“Our goal is to bring it all together and bring those statements so that we can help guide those decision makers, and the changes that are coming in will actually come from the people who call Great Falls home.”
Tiffany Whaley, the selected spokesperson for the Kershaw Heart and Soul team also gave a report on their successes. She called the Heart & Soul experience “frustrating, invigorating, exciting, depressing. It was all the things, in such a beautiful way. It sort of represented what life is: there were challenges that would come up, but it was such a beautiful process, working together alongside friends and neighbors for our community.”
This article was first published in The Chester News & Reporter.
