Project Hometown SC connects people looking for a different pace of life with three small South Carolina towns that are actively recruiting their next new neighbors — and with the residents who will help you land.
Across South Carolina, small towns are building active, engaged communities — walkable downtowns, local dining, schools where teachers know your kids by name. Project Hometown SC is how those towns invite people in: not with a brochure, but with a real conversation and a neighbor waiting on the other end.
Every applicant is matched with a resident ambassador who answers honest questions about schools, housing, work, and what day-to-day life actually feels like.
Cheraw, Hartsville, and Walterboro each have their own character, economy, and landscape. Pick the one that fits the life you're trying to build.
Open a business, join a board, coach a team. In a small town, the distance between having an idea and seeing it happen is remarkably short.
Start where you feel the pull. Each town runs its own program, with its own ambassadors and its own application.
Living history on the Pee Dee River — a 7,000-acre state park at the edge of town, a walkable historic district, and and a new $45M McLeod Health hospital under construction — at a time when rural America is losing them.
Small town, global feel. Coker University and Sonoco's Fortune 500 headquarters bring world-class arts, culture, and talent — all within a walkable downtown that stays better than 90% occupied.
The Front Porch of the Lowcountry — an hour from both Charleston and Savannah, with the ACE Basin at your back door and a downtown of galleries, antiques, and live music.
The same three steps in every Project Hometown SC community.
Tell us a little about yourself and what you're looking for. An ambassador will reach out for a real conversation — no pitch, just questions and answers.
Come spend time in town with your ambassador as your guide. Meet people. See neighborhoods. Eat where the locals eat.
If it feels right, we help you land — connections, networks, and a community already waiting for you.
When you move to a Project Hometown SC community, a resident ambassador helps you find your footing — introductions to the people and places that make a town feel like yours. Coffee on day one. A friendly face from the start.
Our ambassadors are business owners, principals, nurses, chamber presidents, and retirees who volunteered because they believe in where they live.
Start the ConversationMeet the families, founders, and professionals already calling these towns home.
296 students, tuition-free and residential, in a town of about 7,400 — with the school reporting 100% of residential students going on to college.Read the full story on the Hartsville site →
"At a time in health care when there hasn't been any new rural hospitals built since 2000… that's a hard ask."Read the full story on the Cheraw site →
"Commencement every year is the big reminder of my 'why' — watching students walk across the stage."Read the full story on the Walterboro site →
"I believe I am the first African American woman to open a medical practice in Cheraw."Read the full story on the Cheraw site →
A 20-year resident who converted the old Kimbrell's building into a mixed-use hub for civil discourse.Read the full story on the Hartsville site →
"I would put our design crew up against any design crew. We cater to a different type of client because we care."Read the full story on the Walterboro site →
If you already know where you're headed, the fastest path is the community application above — it goes straight to that town's ambassadors.
For questions about the overall program, use this form and the Project Hometown SC team will get back to you.
You are about to share your contact information so that people involved in Project Hometown SC can reach out to you.
By submitting this form you consent to Main Street South Carolina (a program of the Municipal Association of South Carolina) and participants in the Project Hometown SC program contacting you about relocating to South Carolina — by email, and by phone or text if you give them a number.
The information you submit — including your name, email address, where you live, what you do, and anything you wrote in the message box — may be shared with, and you may be contacted by, including but not limited to:
Because the participating municipalities are public bodies, correspondence with them may be subject to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
Your information will not be sold. You can ask us to stop contacting you or to delete your information at any time — see the Privacy Policy.