Advance Kiawah Changing the Story
Being the Change
The systemic and racial injustices witnessed in 2020 have called forth a moment of reckoning across America and prompted a monumental question for the Kiawah Partners team: What are we going to do to change this story?
And in response, Advance Kiawah was born.
The multifaceted initiative was created to expand diversity and impact meaningful, lasting change across Kiawah Island and the Lowcountry. Following professional training to identify the inherent biases and inequities existing within the community, Kiawah’s top leadership created committees to finetune goals and devise a plan to reach them. Today, the blueprints are in place for creating a comprehensive, informed, and lasting strategy—a collective effort that could catalyze real change and eventually take on a life of its own.
“The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it,
if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
– Amanda Gorman, America’s First Youth Poet Laureate
Our Mission
To create a lasting and meaningful initiative that strives to eliminate systemic and institutional racism and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion on Kiawah Island. Our vision is to enable racial, social, and economic progress that outlives this moment in time and transforms Kiawah Island into a community that leads, not just locally but across our state and nation.
Our Focus
Advance Kiawah channels its efforts into four distinct pillars. Each pillar is dependent on all others and it is crucial that symbiosis exists among the quartet to maximize the initiative’s impact.
Staff & Culture
A concerted effort to broaden our recruitment reach and re-strategize placement of employment listings to foster multi-ethnic staffing across our businesses.
Home Ownership
A commitment to attracting a new, broader demographic of buyers to the Island in the service of inclusion and more balanced representation.
Supplier Diversity
A strengthening of partnerships with minority-owned businesses including vendors and service providers.
Community Outreach
A mindful delegation of time and resources to Lowcountry communities of color in the interest of empowering our economically challenged neighbors.
Ready to Change the Story?
Would you like to turn the page on systemic and institutional racism? And help us write a new story of equity, diversity, and inclusion? We’d love to have you with us.