The Rural Area Leadership Initiative-Dillon County (RALI-DC) has taken on the challenge of addressing issues in our communities.
RALI-DC is a 501(c)3 organization developed in partnership with Francis Marion University and has been active in Dillon County more than eight years. It is a volunteer-led group that is planning and guiding the work in Dillon County.
Since inception, RALI-Dillon County has secured many grants to help the local community. The first project was the Dillon County Free Medical Clinic, established in 2008 with a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Free Medical Clinic is located at 310 West Washington Street, Dillon, South Carolina and currently serves approximately 400 Dillon County residents.
RALI-DC engaged in an 18-month community engagement/assessment through a grant from the Healthy South Carolina Initiative to promote healthy eating and access to healthy food options in our county. They also partnered with the South Carolina Tobacco Free Collaborative to provide smoke free signage to churches and businesses wanting to promote a smoke free environment.
In 2016, according to the County Health Ranking & Roadmaps, Dillon County ranked 43rd out of 46 counties in South Carolina on both health factors and health outcomes.
After reviewing this data and additional local community needs, the RALI-DC coalition selected increasing access to healthy, fresh, nutritious food and increasing exercise as their goals. Focusing on these two areas RALI-DC is partnering with the South Carolina Office of Rural Health to improve the health outcomes in their county.
This is a countywide project to promote change in health factors and outcomes. They encourage all communities to participate in upcoming activities sponsored by RALI-DC. To coordinate these activities RALI-DC will be hiring a project coordinator, three community coordinators (Dillon, Lake View, Latta) and a gardening coordinator.
