Engaging religious communities and neighbors through education, consulting and placemaking

Projects are opportunities to leverage assets — physical, financial, social and cultural resources — for the common good. As Sympara works with religious communities and neighbors, new possibilities emerge:

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• Solutions to loneliness and despair

• Dialogue and discovery across belief and background

• Public and private collaboration

• Personal agency and communal power to effect change

• Social capital maximized for social impact

Our current projects include:

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Chapel of Christ the King

Charlotte, NC

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Sympara is guiding this Episcopal church and its neighbors through a discernment process that has 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.

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Church & Community Placemaking Lab

North Carolina

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Sympara is helping six communities repurpose underutilized church properties for social impact through a seven-month cohort experience sponsored by the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. Learn more.

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HumanGood

Pleasanton, CA​

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

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St. Mark's Village

Raleigh, NC

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Sympara is guiding a discernment process with community leaders to imagine how a closed Episcopal church might be reused to benefit the neighborhood and the wider city.

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Sympara Asset-Mapping App

Everywhere

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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. 

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Aging for the Common Good

Online

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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. 

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Congregational Death/Community Life

Online

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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.

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Conversations on Sacred/Civic Placemaking

Online

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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.

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