CHARLESTON S.C. (WCIV) — Wonderful things can happen when a community comes together.

Lowcountry non-profit, Metanoia SC, is listening to the people who live in North Charleston's Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood.

Over the past 20 years, Metanoia has been implementing programs to meet residents' needs to generate positive changes.

Shawn Saulsberry is the Board Chair of Metanoia.

"It's a huge responsibility because Metanoia is literally serving the area that I grew up in," Saulsberry said.

Saulsberry remembers growing up in what's known as "Charleston Heights," or the "Heights" in North Charleston.

The community played an important part in his childhood.

"I didn't have the organization that we have today, but somehow I ran across those metanoia-type people who saw me, and they invested in me."

His grandfather taught him the importance of entrepreneurship.

"My grandfather taught us to work hard at an early age. He would let us rent the lawnmower from him, and we would go and cut grass in the community, and we would get to keep the profits," Saulsberry said.

Now, as a Senior Manager at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, Saulsberry uses his background of a strong work ethic to encourage the youth in the neighborhood.

Metanoia serves as a youth leadership pipeline.

"I'm not the smartest or the brightest, but I do know how to work hard, and I also know how to have endurance and not stop and just encourage them. If you do those things eventually, you're gonna find what you love. You're gonna find what you want to do in life, and it's gonna work well for you," said Saulsberry.

Metanoia was launched in 2002 by a coalition of churches across South Carolina.

By definition, Metanoia certainly works well with the community it serves.

"It means to make a positive transformation, kind of take upon a positive change of direction," explained Metanoia CEO Reverend Bill Stanfield.

Rev. Stanfield and his wife Evelyn live in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood with their two teenage sons.

Before Metanoia's founding, the couple spent one year getting to know their neighbors and listening to their concerns.

"We really do believe people closest to communities know the solutions to their own problems," said Stanfield.

Stanfield saw this as an opportunity to build on the positive community members saw in their neighborhood.

And Metanoia did just that.

In addition to building leaders, it's the non-profit's mission to also establish quality housing within Chicora-Cherokee.

"We build new homes for some home buyers. We also build new homes for affordable rental, all within the community where prices are going up, and people are finding it hard to afford a place to live," said Stanfield.

The organization also invests in neighborhood assets. They support black businesses on Reynolds Avenue and have a partnership with a local manufacturing company to create jobs in the community.

"There's a systematic way of listening to the community and understanding what the community needs and then coming alongside the needs of the community and becoming an advocate for what the community wants to do," said Saulsberry.

If you'd like to nominate an individual or organization for a prestigious 'Jefferson Award, email your nomination to ABC News 4's Tessa Spencer.

Antwan Smalls, My Three Sons of Charleston co-owner and Army captain, made time for the managerial responsibilities that come with restaurant ownership during a recent 8-month overseas tour in Kuwait.

That included applying for a grant from the Black Kitchen Initiative.

Partnering with The LEE Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice, Kraft Heinz is donating more than $1 million to Black-owned food and beverages businesses like My Three Sons through the program that “aims to celebrate and preserve the legacy of Black food by breaking down the barriers that keep Black voices and Black cooking on the margins of American culinary culture.”

My Three Sons of Charleston was one of three area businesses and 65 nationwide selected to receive grants of either $15,000 or $25,000 as part of the initiative, which debuted in 2021.

Bert and T’s Desserts and Carolina Cookery were the other two Lowcountry businesses to receive grants.

Lindsey Ofcacek and Edward Lee founded The LEE Initiative in 2017 to address issues of diversity and equity in the restaurant industry. Ofcacek said Black-owned restaurants received a disproportionate number of Paycheck Protection Program loans at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the repercussions are still being felt today.

“We spent a lot of time seeing what was happening in our industry and seeing what people were going through,” Ofcacek said. “Every program that we do is about diversifying leadership and ownership.”

Smalls, his mother Lorraine and the late Alice Warren first debuted My Three Sons in a North Charleston strip mall on East Montague Avenue in 2014. In January 2020, they moved into a stand-alone, brick-and-mortar in an old KFC at 5237 Dorchester Road. Less than two months later, they were forced to close amid the pandemic.

In the months that followed, Smalls was an active member of The Independent Restaurant Coalition, a group established during the pandemic to advocate for independent restaurants. For Smalls and the other grant recipients, the funding comes at an important time as inflation and pandemic-caused complications disproportionately impact small businesses, particularly those that are Black-owned.

“For them to step up and step into the gap where the government failed has been nothing but outstanding,” Smalls said of the Black Kitchen Initiative.

My Three Sons is located in an area that is short on independent restaurants and grocery stores, meaning the restaurant is a pillar in the community. Smalls plans to use a portion of the funds to further serve his North Charleston neighbors by driving to them in the new My Three Sons food truck.

The truck — equipped with a 6-burner stove, two deep fryers and a flat top — will serve My Three Sons specialties like seafood rice, chicken and waffles, and shrimp and grits when it debuts in 2023.

The SC Ports Authority has voted to enter into contracts worth over $100 million to design and build a new facility at the old U.S. Navy base.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Ports Authority has voted to enter into contracts worth over $100 million to design and build a new facility at the old U.S. Navy base in North Charleston.

The authority has broken ground on the $400 million railyard near McMillian Avenue, which is funded by the state legislature. The contracts the board approved Tuesday afternoon are the next step in moving it forward and ramping up construction.

“It has roadways so that the trains don’t interfere with passenger traffic,” SC Ports Authority President and CEO Barbara Melvin said about the facility. “It has an additional rail track. It has the facility itself, along with equipment. A lot of design has already occurred, and now we’re moving into construction, which is the really exciting piece of this as we see the project coming out of the ground, so it’s a big deal.”

When built, the facility will handle cargo from Norfolk Southern and CSX, which Melvin said represents 25% of their current business.

“We expect to be able to handle a million rail lifts, and as we move into phase two, which is the second part of the design, it moves to 1.3 million rail lifts,” she said.

Board members awarded a contract worth just under $120 million to Landmark Construction to build the site itself. This contract includes building sound walls, rail foundations, 11 processing tracks and four arrival and departure tracks.

They also unanimously voted to pay over $4.3 million to design around 15 miles of rail that would head south from the facility toward Charleston before wrapping back to North Charleston.

Juan Gordon, the president of Coalition 18, which represents around 900 truckers in the Lowcountry, said the facility could do some harm to local drivers who rely on a distribution system called rapid rail. This is a system designed to move cargo from ports to areas more inland.

“I’m against it because I know people who solely depend on that program,” Gordon said. “I know people who that’s all they do is rapid rail, and they have been doing it for 10, 20 years now.”

Gordon said he does not see the facility causing truckers to turn in their keys, adding that future projects could help offset the lost business.

“We’re such a huge port community here in Charleston,” he said. “I believe we’ll find a way like we’ve done so many times.”

Melvin said they are still on track to be handling their first trains at the facility in the summer of 2025.

“This is a next great step for us, as we are a very competitive top 10 port to become an import gateway for the United States as well as having our cargo reach further into land,” Melvin said.

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The Citadel Bulldogs (7-11) vs. UNC Greensboro Spartans (11-8)

The Line: UNC Greensboro Spartans -13.5 / The Citadel Bulldogs +13.5 ; Over/Under: 136 (Get latest betting odds)

The Citadel Bulldogs and the UNC Greensboro Spartans meet Thursday in college basketball action from Greensboro Coliseum. The Citadel is currently 7-11 overall. The Bulldogs lost to Western Carolina in their last game. As for UNC Greensboro, they’re 11-8 on the year after a win versus Furman. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

The Citadel Bulldogs

The Citadel started out at 6-8 this year with wins over Presbyterian, Morris College, New Orleans, IUPUI, Charleston Southern and Chattanooga. The Bulldogs are 1-3 since then with losses to Furman, Wofford and ETSU.

In the Saturday matchup versus Western Carolina, the Citadel took a slim 26-25 lead into the second half. The Bulldogs posted a 39-36 run the rest of the way in a 65-61 win. Stephen Clark led the team on 28 points and eight boards.

UNC Greensboro Spartans

Over on the UNC Greensboro side, they beat JWU-Charlotte, UMBC, Montana State, Elon, Marshall, Warren Wilson and WCU in their first 14 games. The Spartans have beaten Wofford, Chattanooga, VMI and Furman in the five games since.

Matched up against Furman in the Saturday game, the Spartans scored 40 points in the first half, 37 points in the second and 11 in overtime during an 88-80 win. Keyshaun Langley led the team with 23 points and five rebounds.

ANDREW’S FREE PICK

I’m going to go with UNC Greensboro. The Spartans had a little trouble putting away a pretty good Furman team in their last outing, but to their credit UNCG got the job done. Over this current 5-1 stretch the Spartans have hit 68 or more points in all six games. As for the Citadel, they’ve been a mixed bag lately and haven’t scored well over this 1-4 stretch. I’d imagine the Bulldogs will hang around for a while in this one but I don’t think they’ll cover.

Percentages: FG .358, FT .679.

3-Point Goals: 12-30, .400 (Smith 7-10, Burnham 2-4, Brzovic 1-2, Bolon 1-4, Larson 1-8, Horton 0-1, Robinson 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 6. Team Turnovers: 1.

Blocked Shots: 4 (Brzovic 2, Faye, Horton).

Turnovers: 13 (Faye 3, Larson 2, Scott 2, Bolon, Brzovic, Burnham, Horton, Robinson, Smith).

Steals: 7 (Larson 3, Faye 2, Horton 2).

Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .403, FT .143.

3-Point Goals: 4-15, .267 (Ball 2-5, Collins 2-6, Allen 0-1, Spence 0-1, Vaughan 0-1, Vuga 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: None.

Blocked Shots: 8 (Vuga 3, Collins 2, Foster 2, Ball).

Turnovers: 14 (Collins 4, Foster 3, Spence 2, Allen, Ball, Sandhu, Vaughan, Vuga).

Steals: 5 (Spence 2, Ball, Collins, Foster).

Technical Fouls: None.

A_1,478 (4,100).