Columbia, South Carolina is home of the state capital, 13 presitigious secondary schools, and the South Carolina State house, but it is also home to tens of thousands of people who experience the pain of poverty and disenfranchisement without a clear path to change the trajectory of their lives. With a crime rate of more than double the national average and nearly 25% of homes below the poverty line, the condition of our city must be addressed to improve the quality of life for all who live here.
The Columbia Dream Center exists to reach the hurting and broken within the metro Columbia, SC area by understanding and meeting both physical and spiritual needs. Through offering services directly through our onsite programs in disadvantaged neighborhoods, lives will be changed and families will find hope in such a profound way that our city will be able to dream once again.
The Columbia Dream Center launched in 2024 with its first program, Adopt-A-Block, which aims to supply neighboroods with events and supply distributions that help build realtionships and uncover needs in and around the city. We hope to establish a permanent onsite location by the end of 2024 to allow the launch of multiple services and programs to address a wide variety neighborhood needs.
The needs represented in our community are vast in scope and in number. This is not just a challenge, but rather an opportunity to make a great impact through inspiring and mobilizing the local community to take up the responsibility to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’. Through our efforts we believe that we can effectively make a difference through developing programs and processes to: eliminate hunger, provide essential care products, inspire and mentor at-risk youth, teach healthy financial habits, and much more.