Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina

2025-2050 Vision Report Executive Summary

Imagine a baby born on January 1, 2025, in our Southern Lowcountry. This baby will grow up at the crossroads of great promise, great uncertainty, and even greater change, begging the question: By 2050, what is our community’s shared vision for that future toddler, child, teen, and adult to thrive in our Southern Lowcountry—the four-county region of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper?

In 2024, we at the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina (CCF) asked this big, important, and necessary question. Then, we dedicated ourselves to a year of deep community listening and learning with interviews, surveys, listening sessions, town halls, and research. For each of these methods, we asked our community three questions:

  1. What are your hopes and dreams for your community over the next 25 years?
  2. Now, imagine it is the year 2050, and your hopes and dreams all came true. What evidence can you share to prove that it all came true?
  3. Can you list people and/or institutions in your community who you trust and who you believe would help us pursue our community vision for the next 25 years?

Initial answers to these three questions are shaping our 25-year and four-county community vision. Over the next quarter-century, it will serve as a road map to guide CCF’s priorities and partnerships with—not only for—our community.

Throughout our first year of listening and learning, CCF focused on four elements:

Our people focus lets us reframe findings around people. For example, we prioritize “students and educators,” instead of issues like “education.” Our strengths and solutions focus lets us write positive narratives. So, “we cherish the natural beauty of our home,” instead of “our environment is being destroyed.” Our overlapping focus lets us solve for two or more findings at once. Since “employers and workers” are also “parents and caregivers,” solutions for “employers and workers” should also be solutions for “parents and caregivers.” Last, our findings focus on both the community input and the data, which are complementary.

After sharing our initial findings and next steps, CCF heard our community’s feedback loud and clear:

We at CCF should commit the next quarter-century to dreaming, thinking, and acting: regionally (where: Southern Lowcountry footprint), generationally (when: 25-year timeline), collaboratively (who: cross-sector and cross-community mindset), creatively (what: all-asset toolset), and courageously (how: with—not only for—our community).

This is only the beginning. There is a lot of work ahead, and the next generation is counting on us. So, as we roll up our sleeves to get started, we have one question for you…

Will you join us?

 

Imagine that we achieve our vision: a thriving Southern Lowcountry community by 2050. What would the evidence be?

People-powered Priorities

  • The evidence will be our thriving people.

    • Employers and workers (not only jobs, wages, and economic mobility) are thriving.
    • Multigenerational families and care workers (not only childcare and eldercare) are thriving.
    • Neighbors, owners, and renters (not only housing) are thriving.
    • Patients and healthcare professionals (not only healthcare) are thriving.
    • Residents and commuters (not only infrastructure) are thriving.
    • Students and educators (not only education) are thriving.

Demographic Differences

  • The evidence will be that our demographics are no longer a factor in determining lifetime incomes or outcomes.

    • Household income, wealth, and composition: We see how any community member can live in a household that earns sufficient income to thrive and build wealth to transfer across generations, regardless of who led their household of origin (e.g., married couple, single parent, etc.).
    • Place: We see no statistical significance in lifetime incomes or outcomes based on the population density of the place where a community member resides.
    • Race/ethnicity: We see no statistical significance in lifetime incomes or outcomes based on the race of a community member.

Strengths in 2025

  • The evidence will be that our challenges in 2025 become our strengths by 2050.

    • We see promise in access to technology.
    • We have cross-sector leaders and networks.
    • We have smart infrastructure aligned for our growing population.
    • We have a diverse population and rich history.
    • We trust our faith community.
    • We prioritize individual generosity for individual organizations.
    • We support local activities of smaller-scale services for shorter-term needs.
    • We cherish the natural beauty of our home.

Strengths in 2050

  • The evidence will be that our challenges become our strengths.

    • We have more close friends and beloved gathering places outside home and work.
    • We are more civically engaged residents and advocates who vote, volunteer, partner, and lead.
    • We leverage more collective generosity and cross-sector investment, to attract, pool, and grow more resources.
    • We are more-informed and critical thinkers with credible and accurate sources of information.
    • We use more positive narratives about ourselves, not negative ones.
    • We feel more regional identity, belonging, and joy, not isolation, division, or apathy.
    • We are greater than the sum of our local parts by building more regional infrastructures of larger-scale systems for longer-term solutions.
    • We trust more trustworthy institutions across sectors without hope fatigue.

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