INITIATIVES
The Carolina Ocean Alliance believes in the power of partnerships led by local people and guided by local and traditional knowledge to promote equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable community-driven solutions. We are committed to using our network-of-networks model to collaborate with local and regional partners as we work to solve the challenges facing our community and communities like ours around the world. To achieve this, our approach is based on community ecology where each individual and organization has a role to play and collaboration is necessary to promote a resilient and regenerative community.
01
The Hope Summit is an annual conference and festival held in Charleston at the end of September to highlight the challenges facing our community and celebrate the community-driven solutions possible through the dozens of nonprofits, community organizations, schools, and local agencies working to create agency and hope in coastal South Carolina.
Join us for The Hope Summit Book Club, a community of environmentally-conscious lifelong learners from across the world. With quarterly book recommendations linked to the current theme of The Hope Summit, readers can engage virtually through webinars and an online community or in-person at Buxton Books in Charleston, South Carolina leading up to The Hope Summit. These books will be available through independent bookseller Buxton Books and at The Hope Summit Conference Book Store.
August - September
October - December
02
The Creek Collective
A diverse and multidisciplinary coalition of hyper-local stewardship groups working to protect and restore their neighboring salt marshes and creeks, including their surrounding hydrological and ecological corridors. This program is based on a grassroots network of neighborhood-scale conservation with stewardship groups adopting the creek system or estuary that shapes their lived environment. This growing grassroots network seeks to restore the reciprocal and mindful relationship between their human and natural communities while creating ecological corridors between creek systems to support pollinators, migratory birds, and native plant species. This group promotes art, culture, history, and ecological education to build a culture of stewardship for children and their families.
The MARSH Project
The Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness Project is a grassroots and community-based effort to preserve and restore our marshes. This hyperlocal stewardship group was founded by Dr. Blake Scott, Blake Suarez, and Joel Caldwell to protect Halsey Creek, one of the few remaining tidal salt marsh creeks on the Charleston peninsula. Their goal is to build a deep connection between their neighbors and the creek at the heart of their neighborhood through history and storytelling, visual art, native plant species restorations, clean-ups, and opportunities to build a culture of caring.
​
In April of 2023, The MARSH Project became an official program of the Carolina Ocean Alliance.
04
Sustainable Ocean Alliance Charleston
Carolina Ocean Alliance hosts the local community hub of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance in Charleston, South Carolina. Through this hub, the COA works to develop the next generation of leaders, cultivate ideas, accelerate solutions, and promote opportunities for emerging young leaders from our region. We also seek to connect our local young professionals with their peers from around the world. Our goal is to develop, equip, and accelerate the next generation of leaders in our region.
​
SOA Charleston sponsors two University-based SOA hubs in South Carolina at Coastal Carolina and College of Charleston.
03
Sustainable Ocean Alliance Charleston
Carolina Ocean Alliance hosts the local community hub of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance in Charleston, South Carolina. Through this hub, the COA works to develop the next generation of leaders, cultivate ideas, accelerate solutions, and promote opportunities for emerging young leaders from our region. We also seek to connect our local young professionals with their peers from around the world. Our goal is to develop, equip, and accelerate the next generation of leaders in our region.
​
SOA Charleston sponsors two University-based SOA hubs in South Carolina at Coastal Carolina and College of Charleston.
More initiatives coming soon...