Community Vision

LIVE...LEARN...WORK...PLAY...REVITALIZE DOWNTOWN

Welcome to the Sumter Community Vision, where we are "creating our future together."

What Is Sumter Community Vision?
The Sumter Community Vision is a collaborative effort involving citizens of the City, County and Shaw Air Force Base. Forward thinking, committed leadership, strong partnerships and community participation are working toward the growth and enhancement of our community in areas vital to the quality of life that we all enjoy:  LIVE, LEARN, WORK, PLAY and REVITALIZE DOWNTOWN.

What's the Goal?
The Community Vision is designed to facilitate the growth and development of the Sumter community throughout the City and County.

Sumter's Community Vision Annual Report - (PDF)

Citizens are rolling up their sleeves and working!
The City and County of Sumter have undertaken monumental steps to prepare for our future. Initiatives and projects defined by Sumter's citizens and leadership are shaping the Sumter community to become known as a community of "CHOICE." Sumter's strong relationships within local businesses, educational systems, government, churches and the community, along with our partnership with Shaw Air Force Base, demonstrate Sumter's desire to provide all citizens with quality of life choices through the Work, Play, Live and Learn and Downtown Development initiatives.

Communications Team 

We would like to give the community information of each of the four branches of Sumter Vision. There are a number of ways to reach the public and we want to reach everyone. To do that we would use different media such as:

Ø      Internet

Ø      Newspaper

Ø      Free local magazines

Ø      Local cable spots

Ø      Newcomer packets

Ø      Flyers

Our base idea started with a link from Sumter’s web site sumtersc.gov (Sumter Vision has a tab there currently). We would like to list out the four branches of the vision process. Our first idea was to do just “play” since we hear so many complaints about there being nothing to do in Sumter.

We would ask different groups in the community to provide their calendar of event information to one contact person that could update the web site. Possibilities are:

Ø      Parks & Recreation

Ø      Art Gallery

Ø      Shaw AFB

Ø      Churches

Ø      USC Sumter

Ø      Central Carolina Tech.

Ø      Hope Center

Ø      Opera House

We would also provide this information to our local cable network for posting on channel 7 and free local magazines such as Sumter Living. We would like to see about an insert in The Item listing such events. Extras printed could be turned into flyers to send to different area organization such as the Boys and Girls Club, realtors, newcomer packets, churches and schools.

Once we discussed “play” we realized we could do the same for the other branches. For “live” we can show Tuomey, realtors and high light the Sumter website with information such as local facts, weather and link it to the other branches. For “work” we can spot light different businesses, Sumterhelpwanted.com, Merchants Association, recent award winners from the Chamber retreat etc. The “learn” branch can list local schools, USC Sumter, Central Carolina Tech., Home School Association and what Sumter is doing with and for education.

There might be some overlap such as Continuing Education courses could be listed under “play” and “learn.”

As the Communication Team we want to inform the public as to what is going on in Sumter and recognize the partners with Sumter Vision. Our goal is to reach all economic levels of Sumter.

Individual teams working together for one vision was brought up at our last “Leadership Sumter” day.

We thought we would share what we have so far and see if you can incorporate any of this into your plan. Please let us know your thoughts and if we can add something to our plan to help out yours.

The Sumter Community Vision Center is located in the heart of Downtown Sumter.

Patty L. Wilson, Director
21 North Main Street
Hours of Operation - Varied
Office # 774-1643
Cell # 491-4910
Email: pwilson@sumter-sc.com

The Center needs your help. Are you willing to volunteer your services, professional skills, expertise etc.? Call the center--we can use you!

“The City of Sumter has supported and continues to support the Visioning process.  And it is an evolving process, because a static vision can place limits on the hopes and dreams we have for our community.  Sumter's Vision is going to be dynamic, capturing the imagination of more and more citizens each year and increasing in power with each success.  Our future can be what we want it to be only if we can agree on a common vision of where we want to go and work together to get there.”

--Joseph T. McElveen, Jr., Mayor, City of Sumter