text: Where ministry meets people with their strengths as well as their needs, Palmetto Works Community Development Corporation (Palmetto Works) offers a partnering hand through Asset Based Community Development. Palmetto Works is a not for profit, faith-based ministry headquartered in Conway, SC. Palmetto Works launched in 2012 as an outreach of the Palmetto Baptist Missionary Church under the continued leadership of Rev. Cheryl Moore Adamson. The goal of the ministry to is to come together with people of all ages, with a special heart for African-American children, adolescents and young adults, to show them a path forward. Through partnerships with local and state institutions and generous donations from the community, ministry partners and various foundations, Palmetto Works operates and manages Palmetto Kids! Music & Arts Academy, Palmetto Youth Leadership Academy, CHOPS Produce, a small produce market and healthy juice bar. Funding is paramount for the growth of the ministry and all who are willing to give are asked to search their hearts for ways to help.
  Reverend Adamson knows that reaching kids at their foundational stages, is the best way to positively impact their lives long term. Palmetto Kids! is an after school and summer program for elementary aged school children.
  The purpose of the program is at least five-fold:
  - To provide music lessons for children whose parents are financially unable to afford extracurricular activities for their families;
  - To provide a safe environment for children who would otherwise be at home with no parental supervision;
  - To improve the academic, social, and life skills of children in our community;
  - To serve as the primary resource to equip parents to raise morally fit and ethically sound children of good character;
  - To develop a performance troupe to enhance the artistic and performance skills of the children
  Also, we intend to provide the children with academic support, recreational activities, books, t-shirts and other incentives. We will build positive relationships with their families through parental involvement activities, home visits and other fellowship opportunities. In the future we hope to expand the scope of our activities, enhance the quality of our offerings, and to increase the number of children and families we can serve.
  Palmetto Youth Leadership Academy
  With the Academy’s many goals, keeping middle school and high school aged kids in school may be at the top of the list. Palmetto Youth Leadership Academy gives these kids the reasons, motivations and tools they need to stay in school. “We are a church without walls,” Reverend Adamson likes to say, about the programs under the Palmetto Works umbrella, serving the community through after school tutoring, partnerships with other churches offering camps, mentoring and other enrichment programs.
  Using STEM-based systems, here older kids and qualified volunteers serve as role models to tutor and mentor younger kids, and like everything else Palmetto Works stands for, to be agents of positive change.
  Culinary and Hospitality Operatives Prepared to Serve, is the long away around understanding Palmetto Works’ CHOPS program. Simply, CHOPS is a collaborative jobs training program between A Father’s Place, Palmetto Works Community Development Corporation and Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church. It is designed to enhance the culinary skills, service attitude, business acumen and personal and professional motivation of participants to enable them to enter the workforce or start a business.
  Serving as a hub for fresh produce and fruit in a USDA certified food desert, CHOPS maintains a small farmer’s market and offers cooking and nutrition information and demonstrations from visiting chef Dewayne Beaty. CHOPS shares the space at 505 Church St. in Conway with two women-owned and veteran-owned business, Juice Crush Juicing Company and the Bling Tee Boutique.
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  Help us achieve our vision to improve the quality of life for all people in Horry County, S.C. Palmetto Works relies on charitable donations to expand access and services while building a collaborative coalition with like-minded individuals and organizations. It is our pleasure to serve!