sending light and joy your way
As the year draws to a close, we at Flourish Placemaking Collective want to extend our warmest holiday wishes to you. In this season, we pause to reflect on the light of that first Christmas—a light that still shines today in every act of kindness, through the hope cultivated in community, and from the mutual joy discovered in giving and receiving. Whether you’re gathering with loved ones, embracing quiet reflection, or finding your own special way to mark this time, know that we are grateful for the ways your support has helped us nurture spaces of belonging where all can flourish.
Wishing you peace, love, and renewal in this season and beyond,
a glimpse inside a recent FPC project:
The Presbytery of Southern New England
In pivoting to placemaking, we remain curious about how to best engage in our work. How can we be most impactful while continuing to embody our relational values? How can we get ahead of the curve, when so many buildings are deteriorating and so many communities and places of worship are feeling urgency and deep uncertainty about their futures? Early partnerships with churches are paving the way, we believe, and pointing us toward stronger organizational clarity: The greatest opportunity resides, not at the singular congregational level, but in community-wide, denominational, and regional levels of leadership.
Over the last six months, we’ve been delighted to partner with The Vandersall Collective in our support of the Presbytery of Southern New England (PSNE)—a huge milestone in our efforts to focus more and more of our energy at larger judicatory levels. The scope of our work with the PSNE entailed two primary goals:
- developing a theology, core values and strategic filter for the Trustees in how they think about and make decisions around their land and property; and,
- providing land and property support to three individual congregations within the PSNE.
We are excited about the listening work accomplished, the discoveries made along the way, and the recommendations we put in front of them. We believe some unbelievable stories await them in 2025 and beyond as they continue to lean into big questions and hold courageous and collaborative conversations.
Do you know of a church or organization who might be interested in partnering with us to explore the possibilities for their space?
Share this issue of cultivate with them, or invite them to learn more at flourishplacemaking.org.
highlighting the work of the Flourish Food Market
The generous support of countless volunteers and donors helped make 2024 the biggest year yet for the Flourish Food Market, as you can see reflected in the numbers below:
A special thanks to our volunteer teams from The Table MPLS, Logisolve, and the Plant Based MN communities!
expanding the work of belonging:
protecting perpetual community assets
Flourish believes a key variable to cultivate belonging involves the places and spaces that enable folks in community to gather for connection, work, worship, and more. Given this belief, we can see how most places in our communities can support belonging.
Yet we also believe that the places and spaces that serve as the backbone of community are those that embrace and model radical access and inclusion. Places and spaces that embody the idea that All Are Welcome. These often include libraries, parks, religious institutions, community and performing arts centers, schools, and hospitals. We refer to the collection of these places and spaces as Community Centered Institutions (CCI).
What if all CCI were supported by resources and policies that never allowed deferred maintenance to occur? What if our society ensured that CCI were supported and protected beyond any one of the dozen owners who, on average, steward these spaces during their commercial lifespan? Imagine if all CCI were in a state of readiness to always serve as a perpetual community asset!
As part of our work, Flourish strives to be a champion of all CCI in the state of Minnesota. In follow-up to our R3 Spaces Summit this past May, we committed to using our organizational resources to help amplify the needs of CCI.
To this end, one of our steps will be the release of a white paper early in 2025 that plants a seed for why and how CCI in Minnesota can be protected. It also outlines several ways that Flourish will seek to partner with other advocates of community-centered institutions so that they may remain perpetual community assets.
We look forward to sharing more about this aspect of our work soon!
None of the work highlighted above would be possible without the generous financial support of our donors. As you consider your year-end giving plans, we’d humbly ask you to include a gift to support the work of Flourish Placemaking Collective. 2025 promises to be a big year for our work, both close to home and around the country, and we can’t do it without you!
Flourish Placemaking Collective
3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408
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