Advocate to hold listening sessions across the state to gauge…

The Advocate newspaper will hold community listening sessions in every district in South Carolina this year to gauge the needs and interests of its readers.

The community listening sessions will enable Advocate staff and board members to better understand the news needs of the people of the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. The sessions will be part of a wider effort combining surveying, focus groups, interviews and events so the Advocate can deliver relevant and reliable news and information so people can make important decisions and participate fully in making disciples of Jesus Christ. All are welcome.

“The Advocate needs to gain financial self-sustainability to endure for the next 200 years,” said Advocate Editor Jessica Brodie. “In this process, we are conducting a full brand refresh, rebuilding our website and assessing our mission, vision and core values. We also need to gain more subscribers, donors and advertisers, so it is imperative we try to pull in new and younger South Carolina United Methodists to keep our readership alive. We thought it best to start with surveying what our readers want to know by going directly to them through our districts.”

Community listening session dates are as follows; all sessions will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Feb. 24: Columbia, at Mount Hebron UMC, West Columbia
Feb. 25: Rock Hill, St. John’s UMC, Rock Hill
March 25: Greenwood
April 29: Anderson
May 15: Spartanburg
June 24: Greenville
July 15: Florence, Lake City UMC, Lake City
Aug. 26: Hartsville
Sept. 30: Marion
Oct. 28: Orangeburg
Nov. 17: Charleston
Dec. 1: Walterboro