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.

ForOurLastNames, Tulsa Oklahoma

The vision of ForOurLastNames is to empower individuals to build wealth for their colliective last names - to build generational wealth. During the pandemic, Ray’Chel Wilson moved to Tulsa, OK to teach biology as part of Teach for America and found herself teaching the descendants of families who had thrived during the days of Black Wall Street. Struck by the current economic disparity, Ray’Chel designed her original curriculum to provide basic financial literacy for graduating high school students. This curriculum, informed by Ray'Chel's goal-based investing methods to pay off her student loans, was a hit and students showed a particular interest in learning how to invest. Ray’Chel created her first company, Raise the Bar Investments, as a resource for holistic financial literacy and as a step toward closing the racial and gender wealth gaps.  ForOurLastNames is an app that will support first-generation investors in building education & wealth.

North Texas TRANSportation Network , Fort Worth, Texas

The North Texas TRANSportation Network (NTTN) provides travel and relocation grants to North Texas families seeking out-of-state health care for trans and gender-diverse minors or seeking to relocate because of issues such as lack of access to health care or bullying. Led by Cynthia Daniels, the vision is to ensure that every transgender and gender-diverse minor in North Texas has access to the healthcare they need, regardless of geographical barriers. Families are supported through $1000 travel grants and recently added $3000 moving grants, which alleviate some of the financial burdens that often accompany seeking healthcare beyond state lines.

Gracefull Grind Strategies, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Ebony Smith is the CEO and Founder of Gracefull Grind Strategies, a digital marketing agency transforming how organizations engage with and mobilize their communities online. She combines data-focused strategic marketing with visual storytelling to help nonprofits and community organizations expand their reach and impact. Through her work with changemakers in education, community public safety, public health, and family social service, she amplifies voices that need to be heard and activates people ready to create change. Her approach supports organizations in historically underserved areas that desire to positively shift narratives in their neighborhoods. 

Andrée Collective, Philadelphia, PA

Andrée Collective serves female survivors of complex trauma who have fled situations of intimate partner violence, sexual assault and human trafficking in a two fold manner: employment and therapy. Founded by Samantha Mathews. Andrée Collective offers professional job training in various aspects of the wedding industry while also providing group and individual evidence-based trauma therapy with licensed mental health professionals.

Survivors partner with and learn from event professionals in various aspects of the wedding industry, while completing professional training and goal-focused career coaching. In addition to employment, survivors engage in regular group and individual evidence-based trauma therapy with licensed mental health professionals. Combining therapy with employment allows for a unique trauma-informed environment where survivors work and heal in a  compassionate, empowering setting.

Founded by Summer Rothwell, Open Mind Yoga Hawai’i is a yoga based after school program with a simple mission - to create a space for autistic kids to play, learn and grow, through aerial yoga, sensory play and social activities. With the use of a hammock, children who have difficulty participating in other sports can have a safe supportive experience through yoga.