Engaging faith communities and neighbors through education, consulting and placemaking

Our projects are opportunities to leverage assets — physical, financial, social and cultural resources — for the common good. As we work with faith communities and neighbors, new possibilities emerge:

​​

• Dialogue and discovery across belief and background

• Solutions to loneliness and despair

• Public and private collaboration

• Personal agency and communal power to effect change

• Social capital maximized for social impact

Our current projects include:

​

Plymouth United Church of Christ

Oakland, CA

​

Sympara is guiding the church and its neighbors through a discernment process to build affordable housing on the property.

​

Union Baptist Church

Durham, NC

​

Sympara is helping the congregation and its neighbors discern how the church property might be stewarded more for social impact.

​

Ministry of Space

Chicago, IL

​

Sympara is facilitating an exploration of shared space and shared ministry with three American Baptist churches that are within walking distance of each other. 

​

HumanGood

Pleasanton, CA​

​

Sympara is identifying congregations with properties suitable for development of workforce housing and other below-market-rate housing on behalf of the nation's seventh largest nonprofit provider of senior housing and health care.

​

The Sacred/Civic Placemaking Project

Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina

​

Sympara is convening two cohorts for congregations that want to build affordable housing on their properties. Starting in January 2025, the eight-month peer learning experience will help congregations discern their calling to housing, engage neighbors and other community stakeholders in visioning, and prepare for the multiyear journey with developers, funders, and programmatic partners. Learn more here.

​

Sympara Asset-Mapping Tool

Everywhere

​

Sympara's web-based app helps religious and community leaders identify, map and connect resources to solve problems. Sign up for the free tool here. 

​

Aging for the Common Good

Online

​

Sympara hosts Zoom-based writing groups for older adults where they share reflections essential to the well-being of individuals and society — insights especially crucial for older congregations and their neighbors who are navigating change. The groups explore the loss and discovery of identity through aging, the experience of aging in relationship to place, the evolution of a spirituality of aging, and the journey to embrace the role of elder. Learn more. 

​

Congregational Death/Community Life

Online

​

Why is it so hard for congregations to die? Sympara's free Zoom series features conversations between cofounder Daniel Pryfogle and pastor and counselor Rick Mixon, who explore the struggle and promise of institutional death through a rich composting of theology, psychology and personal history. Learn more.

​

Conversations on Sacred/Civic Placemaking

Online

​

Amid the struggles of religious and civic institutions, third places are emerging on religious properties. These are spaces to work out what it means to be neighbors and citizens and even creators of more just, equitable and sustainable communities. This free Zoom series explores the convergence of civic engagement, community design and prophetic action with religious leaders, community organizers, developers, social entrepreneurs, architects and others. Learn more.

​

Recent past projects include:

​

Church & Community Placemaking Lab

North Carolina

​

Sympara helped six churches discern visions to repurpose underutilized church property for social impact through a seven-month cohort experience in 2023 sponsored by the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. Learn more.

​

Chapel of Christ the King

Charlotte, NC

​

Sympara guided this Episcopal church and its neighbors through a 19-month discernment process from 2022-2023 that led to a vision of a mixed-use development that will preserve the 100-year-old sanctuary and create affordable housing and flexible community space.

​

St. Mark's Village

Raleigh, NC

​

Sympara facilitated an eight-month discernment process in 2023 with community leaders to imagine how a closed Episcopal church might be reused to benefit the neighborhood and the wider city. Stakeholders are now working with the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina to live into a vision of a community space for gathering, healing and working.​​​​​