Beloved Community Ministries Inc

We are asking you to be a founding supporter of Beloved Commune: An intentional community for Black organizers, a center for wellness, education, and reconciliation for the Greater Community

The idea for Beloved Commune arose from lived experience, observations, and oft-repeated concerns of organizers and activists in the Atlanta Area. Autonomous, grassroots movements for Black Liberation and marginalized people are too often co-opted by the political system, reduced to little more than talking points, an object for virtual signaling rather than an issue that requires action. Fighting uphill battles to draw attention to harmful policies, garner resources for mutual aid programs, while also struggling to provide for themselves, cycles of burnout, disillusionment, and despair are often observable within the activist community. Historical wealth disparities, less access to social circles with disposable economic resources and spare time, and Atlanta’s massive median household income racial disparity (White median income in Atlanta is 2.93 times that of Black residents), exacerbates these trends among Black activists and organizers.

Beloved Community Ministries Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Atlanta that aims to support social justice movements and the individuals who invest their being in creating the world they wish to see through housing, mutual aid, skills development, and education, grounded in wellness and mindfulness practices. We believe that a better society is within reach when we invest in one another’s well being. Beloved Commune will make this belief operative by providing a community of mutual care and cultivation for new worldmaking projects and the people working to actualize them.

Beloved Commune is the central piece in a vision of sustainable community where we address the basic needs of individuals as we work toward one another's self-actualization.  

**Updated March 2023**

Since the beginning of this campaign in 2022, Beloved Community successfully implemented programming and reached some milestones toward the founding of Beloved Commune.

Beloved Community directed the bulk of its operational capacity toward the fight to Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF) and Stop Cop City (SCC), supporting the organizers, activists and concerned citizens who have been on the frontlines of this struggle. This support includes spiritual care/counseling, conflict mediation, hosting community forums, guided meditation and yoga sessions, and several forms of on-the-ground support and coordination. Through the success of these activities and belief in the vision, Beloved Community has received funds to support the DTAF/SCC movement and capital campaign for Beloved Commune. Savings toward the purchase of Beloved Commune now exceed the initial goal of $50,000. There are also plans and resources to spread wider awareness of the DTAF/SCC Movement across the country, so please stay tuned!

The immediate and dire nature of the DTAF/SCC campaign shifted our initial timeline slightly. We understood this fight to be central to every other facet of our future work. Although it was a difficult decision to turn our attention from specifically moving toward the building of Beloved Commune, we better positioned ourselves for future growth and impact.

Short term Goals (2023-2024): Beloved Community begins the intentional community and community center, Beloved Commune, in South/West Atlanta instituting programming focused on public safety, housing justice, food and sustainability, wellness and spirituality, and education. Whereas the strategy is to better resource organizers already doing the work, has a reliable base of supporters by previously established relationships. Internally, we will be navigating the development of consensus-based decision-making and means of conflict resolution that can inform future expansion. Through relationship building and outreach, we will identify other young people who are interested and engaged with the program to be involved further.

March 2023:

Medium term Goals (2024-2027): Expand intentional community and housing for individuals interested in developing economic cooperatives with specific focus on cultivating skills in construction-related trades. These are steps toward the ultimate goal of Beloved Community becoming more sustainable as a nonprofit operating from earned revenue. In every community, participants will be taught conflict resolution skills.  

Five years and Forward: Community-owned and constructed affordable housing in the Greater Atlanta area, sustainable means of urban food production and distribution, further educational and skill-building efforts through community outposts and the headquarters, Beloved Commune. At the heart of all we do is a space fore peace, reflection, and reconciliation for all people. The trajectory of other cooperative efforts will best be determined through a number of community needs assessments and information collected by organizers in perpetuity. 

We are asking you to investment in a down payment for Beloved Commune as we build an autonomous movement in alignment with Atlanta's rich Civil Rights Legacy.