Serve & Connect
Columbia, SC
Serve & Connect utilized Heal America’s Summer of Healing Grant to fund their August 2023 community clean-up event in Columbia’s Woodfield neighborhood. The event was hosted alongside multiple community partners, including the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and the Richland County Government. With a total of 30 volunteers working over two hours, the group collected 32 bags of trash and three bags of recyclables, with the total trash removed estimated to weigh 750 pounds. In addition to the clean-up, a group of Richland County Sheriff Department deputies provided lawn maintenance for local elderly folk and people with disabilities, ensuring neighbors were able to meet property ordinance regulations. Beyond providing support for community needs, the clean-up served as a connection point for police officers and community members, continuing Heal America’s and Serve & Connect’s work of bridging long-standing divisions.
BARRIER
The current approach to policing has left communities, particularly communities of color, untrusting of law enforcement. Across the country, police disproportionately threaten or use force against the Black community. In Serve & Connect’s home state of South Carolina, a Black person is over two times more likely to be arrested for low-level, non-violent offenses than a white person. Serve & Connect believes in the power of collaboration to create safer, stronger communities to heal and overcome racial division. To that end, Serve & Connect strategically focuses on three key pillars in their programming: officers supporting communities, communities supporting officers, and the overall transformation of communities.
SOLUTION
Through their Compassionate Acts Program, Serve & Connect provides officers with valuable resources to meet needs of the community. Because officers are on the frontlines in communities, they are an untapped conduit for providing immediate support. One of Serve & Connect’s signature initiatives is Greg’s Groceries. Named to honor the fallen police officer who inspired the founding of Serve & Connect, Greg’s Groceries are boxes of non-perishable foods packed by officers and given to individuals and families in need to create non-enforcement interactions between officers and community members while fostering an environment of trust. Since its inception in 2017, over 85,000 meals have been delivered by 59 departments across South Carolina, building stronger police-community relations one box at a time.
To foster positive relationships between officers and community members, Serve & Connect provides opportunities for communities to support officers. With their Feed an Officer campaign and Tragedy Response Program, Serve & Connect ensures officers are recognized as valuable members of the community. The annual Feed an Officer campaign allows community members to show appreciation to law enforcement, culminating in the delivery of lunches and other demonstrations of support. The Tragedy Response Program facilitates community giving to support the families of any South Carolina officer killed or critically injured in the line-of-duty to honor their bravery. Since 2015, Serve & Connect has raised more than $750,000 with all proceeds going directly to the officers and their families.
Serve & Connect believes fostering effective partnerships can address the root causes of crime and promote safety. In order to transform communities, the third focus of their work, Serve & Connect launched the Compass Program. An evidence-informed, innovative approach to police partnerships, Compass enables locally driven collaboration between officers and citizen partners to address critical community needs. The core of the Compass Program focuses on trust building and community engagement, relying on participant openness to succeed. With openness to differing experiences and opposing ideas, collaboration flourishes. Serve & Connect provides opportunities for community members and officers alike to collaborate with earned trust and respect, undermining long-standing division and sparking community transformation.