CONWAY, SC – Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson is proud to announce that Tim Meacham and Katherine Brooks, who are facilitators for Project LEAD at Waccamaw Elementary School, had a special guest Thursday for their class: Coastal Carolina University’s Chauncey.
Solicitor Richardson and Chauncey visited the class to hand out T-shirts, which are part of Project LEAD and provided by the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office to each child who participates. Meacham and Brooks work with Coastal Carolina University’s Office of University Counsel and volunteer to teach the Project LEAD lessons at Waccamaw Elementary School.
Project LEAD expanded to seven schools in Horry and Georgetown counties for the 2016-17, Richardson said. “We are excited to be able to provide this program to fifth graders in our circuit with the hope of helping them understand their choices today impact their lives forever,” Richardson said. “I am greatly appreciative of the volunteer facilitators like Tim and Katherine, who helped make this year’s expansion a success for these children.”
Project LEAD began last school year as a pilot program at Conway Elementary with nearly 100 fifth-grade students participating. This year, the program has been expanded to include fifth-graders in Horry County at Conway Elementary, Daisy Elementary, Riverside Elementary, St. James Elementary and Waccamaw Elementary; and in Georgetown County at McDonald Elementary and Waccamaw Intermediate School.
Solicitor Richardson brought the Project LEAD curriculum to South Carolina last year. A member of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office began the program in 1993 and since then multiple other states and jurisdictions in Canada have implemented it. The curriculum includes the criminal justice system, bullying, truancy, gangs, budgeting, techniques to resolve conflict and how the students can resist peer pressure, Richardson said. At the end of the 20-week program, the students present a mock trial where they play the roles of the court staff, attorneys, witnesses, and jurors.-This is from a Press Release.
