DeJuana Golden: The Healing Garden Project, Lakewood, CA

DeJuana Golden is a faith-rooted social entrepreneur transforming neglected land into spaces of healing, nourishment, and hope. As founder of The Healing Garden Project , she partners with churches, schools, and community centers to design and install therapeutic gardens in under-resourced neighborhoods—places where access to fresh food and restorative green space has too often been denied. Through a model grounded in co-stewardship, training, and long-term support, DeJuana is cultivating more than gardens; she is cultivating dignity, wellness, and community transformation.

Ebonie Farlow-Edwards: Compassion Design, Baton Rouge, LA

Compassion Design is a faith-centered digital infrastructure and creative strategy firm that helps purpose-driven organizations and entrepreneurs clarify their message and build sustainable digital infrastructure. Grounded in the belief that creativity is stewardship, the company integrates branding, digital strategy, and systems thinking to help underestimated leaders communicate with clarity and confidence. Founder Ebonie Farlow-Edwards developed the Ebb Effect Methodology to bridge vision and execution—turning purpose into practical, repeatable strategy and strengthening brand positioning for greater impact. She is developing an eight-week program to introduce Black and Brown teens to social entrepreneurship.

Kaitlin D’Antignac, Life of Abundance, Augusta, Georgia

LIfe of Abundance (SWP—Success, Wealth, Prosperity) is a faith-rooted financial empowerment business led by credit specialist Kaitlin D’Antignac. The project supports individuals and families who have been excluded from or harmed by the financial system by combining practical credit-building support with financial literacy education and mindset coaching. Kaitlin’s work centers on helping people understand how credit functions (including consumer laws and credit profiles—not just scores), reduce harmful debt patterns, and use credit strategically to access opportunities like housing, transportation, and business growth.

Cristin Cooper: Coop’s Soups, Oliney, Maryland

Coop’s Soups, founded by Cristin Cooper, is a community-centered social enterprise that addresses loneliness and food insecurity through shared food and relationship building. What began in 2018 as a dinner church in Cristin’s Maryland apartment has grown into a farmer’s-market–based soup business rooted in ministry, hospitality, and mutual care. Coop’s Soups offers vegan, gluten-free soups made with locally sourced vegetables, using a “soup to share” model in which every batch is intentionally prepared with donation in mind—so that sales sustain the enterprise and soup is specifically made to be donated. Through intentional labeling, monthly communal cooking gatherings, and the revival of a neighborhood garden, the project uses food as a catalyst for connection, dignity, and community resilience.

Debbie Almontaser: Bridging Cultures Group, Brooklyn, NY

Through Bridging Cultures Group (BCG), Dr. Almontaser advances equity and inclusion by designing training programs and initiatives that build understanding across communities and workplaces. BCG’s offerings include customized Train-the-Trainer programs, the Courageous Conversations series for educators, and culturally responsive food access programs. Her approach blends restorative practices, cultural competency, and hands-on learning to help people and communities see themselves a part of a diverse interdependent world across racial, ethnic, and religious lines.

Phillip Ford, The Movement Martial Arts, Washington, DC

The Movement Martial Arts, founded by Phillip Ford in Washington, D.C., empowers Black and Brown youth through a unique blend of Taekwondo, kickboxing, and leadership development. Designed to be affordable and accessible, the program integrates social-emotional learning, faith-based reflection, and character formation grounded in the core values of Focus, Integrity, Grit, Honor, and Tenacity—the “FIGHT” framework. Beyond martial arts training, The Movement fosters confidence, discipline, and purpose, helping students strengthen their minds, bodies, and spirits while opening pathways to greater opportunities in school, sports, and life.

Rev. Dianne Rodriguez and Terri Berkey Gonzalez, Greater Woodburn Opportunity Center, Woodburn, Oregon

Spearheaded by Rev. Dianne Rodriguez and Terri Berkey Gonzalez, the Greater Woodburn Opportunity Center (GWOC) in Woodburn, Oregon, is transforming the historic Immanuel Lutheran Church into a multicultural, intergenerational community hub. The eight-acre site will include spaces for social services, early childhood education, senior programs, affordable housing, walking trails, and immigrant care initiatives. The center will also house Feeding Woodburn, which serves nearly 1,000 meals weekly, and the North Marion Adult Center. Rooted in faith and community care, GWOC models a new vision of church—where feeding, connection, and opportunity nourish both body and spirit.

Candace Maloney, DW/B, University Park, Maryland

DW/B: Design Within Studio – Design Beyond Lab
Founded by architect Candace Maloney, DW/B is a Maryland-based architecture and research studio dedicated to community-led, sustainable design. With a focus on adaptive reuse, mixed-use, residential, and commercial projects, the firm integrates local materials and modern functionality to create resilient, inclusive spaces. Candace’s Caribbean roots and deep belief in community stewardship shape DW/B’s mission to make thoughtful architecture accessible to all. A lecturer at the University of Maryland, she also led design efforts for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Citizens Institute on Rural Design, advancing place-based design through collaboration and engagement until funding for that program ended this year.

Jada Ford, Sisterhood, Indianapolis, Indiana

Sisterhood is a six-session, community-based program founded by Jada Ford to strengthen relationships between mothers and daughters through shared meals, mindfulness practices, and soulful reflection. Designed to foster healing, trust, and joy, the program provides family stipends and support to ensure access for all participants. With the goal of nurturing resilience and connection among families facing the pressures of modern life, the program models dignity-centered community care and is expanding its reach through partnerships and sustainable, family-focused programming.

Church Space

Detroit, Michigan

ChurchSpace is a platform unlocking America’s largest underutilized real estate network: excess church space. The platform enables churches to transform unused rooms, kitchens, gyms, and sanctuaries into high-value community infrastructure that fuels productivity, economic growth, and local impact. From licensed kitchens to storage as micro-fulfillment hubs, ChurchSpace converts the idle square footage into assets that serve communities and generate sustainable revenue.

Simply Local

Kahului, Maui, Hawai’i

Founded by Starlet Luzon Joao and her husband Clint, Simply Local is a centrally located cafe and gift shop that offers 20+ local business, artisans, and musicians the opportunity to display their crafts and merchandise, along with food items that represent the cultural heritage of the Hawaiian Islands while generating income to support and raise multigenerational families on Maui.

Shalom Creatives

Madison Heights, Virginia

Shalom Creatives cultivates spaces where healing, creativity and belonging intersect. Through pop-up art studios in underserved communities and with survivors of sexual assault and religious trauma, a leadership network for women whose voices are marginalized in faith settings, and creative workshops that foster reflection, founder Amy Hall guides individuals and communities on a path toward healing and restoration.

Embodied Faith

Ewing, New Jersey

Weaving together resources from Dance Movement Therapy, neuroscience, theology, and transformative learning theories, spiritual director Annalise Hume invites people to dance with the Divine. Embodied Faith offers Spiritual Direction and facilitates movement workshops to help others recognize the movement of God in their life.

BraveMaker

Redwood City, California

BraveMaker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization that hosts an annual film festival each July, bringing filmmakers and storytellers from around the world to the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout the year, BraveMaker provides community-art building experiences in the form of classes, film screenings and workshops.. Founded by Tony Gapastione, Bravemaker aspires to fund and produce new projects that amplify the voices of historically excluded artists, ensuring their stories are seen, heard, and celebrated.

Lauren Efird, The Carr Center, Cary, NC

The Carr Center is a mixed-use development on church-owned land with the purpose of addressing multiple community issues, including affordable housing and child care. Spearheaded by Rev. Lauren Efird, the Carr Center will provide 51 units of affordable housing to lower income households as well as 11 units of program housing for working families experiencing homelessness. Non-profit offices, YMCA programming and early childhood education will also be on site. 

Carl Johnson, Storehouse Grocers, East St. Paul, MN

Carl Johnson opened Storehouse Grocers in 2019 in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood of Saint Paul to provide 300 basic need grocery items to one of Minnesota’s most impoverished neighborhoods. The micro-grocery store and café is a worker owned cooperative that pays a living wage and funds a hot meals delivery program for the neighborhood.  An on-site training program for young adults teaches food industry skills and offers job connections with local restaurants and partners.

Brad Onishi, Axis Mundi Media, San Francisco, CA

Through creative storytelling, in-depth research, and interviews, Axis Mundi Media creates and distributes media resources that educate clergy, journalists, elected officials, professors, teachers, and the lay public about the ways religious nationalism, authoritarian movements, and extremist communities threaten democracy. Created by Dr. Bradley Onishi, co-host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, Axis Mundi is designed to offer an alternative to right wing media education outlets which spread misinformation and inaccurate, biased history.

Harvey Chun, Aloha Community Shed, Honolulu, Hawai’i

The mission of the Aloha Community Shed is to encourage healthy physical, social and mental opportunities for senior men and women to share friendships, experiences and projects with pride, dignity and Aloha in a welcoming environment for the benefit of members and community. The Aloha Community Shed builds projects for the local community, such as raised garden planters and benches, and also sells artisan items in pop-ups and craft fairs. Harvey Chun is a Director of the Aloha Community Shed and has been a member for 4 years.

Erica Williams Simon, Mamas in Waiting, Cary NC

Mamas In Waiting exists to meet the needs of women of color who have experienced infertility, pregnancy loss and other challenges on their path to motherhood, no matter where they may be on their journey. Founded by narrative strategist, author, and podcast host Erica Williams Simon, Mamas in Waiting offers retreats, virtual workshops, community, and resources ranging from emergency support grants to direct access to trusted mental health professionals. 

The Garden, Ferguson, MIssouri

A closed coffee shop that had been a central gathering place for the Ferguson community is preparing to re-open in March as The Garden, a space for connection and conversation. In 2019, Civil Righteousness, a non-profit founded by Jonathan Thomas, purchased the building. Today, they have renovated the coffee shop and cafe, added an art gallery designed for contemplation, as well as a commercial commissary kitchen which will offer affordable space to local food entrepreneurs. A mentorship program for local entrepreneurs will help revitalize the Ferguson community through economic growth.