In every neighborhood there is a house of worship with underutilized space. Millions of faith-owned acres and the buildings upon them represent America's single greatest resource for solving its most critical social challenges. Affordable housing, affordable child care, accessible health care, and economic mobility: these issues and more can be addressed through the creative reuse of religious properties — if congregations are inspired and equipped.

 

Enter Sympara. We help communities reimagine underutilized religious properties for social impact. We bring congregations and neighbors together across differences of age, race, economics, belief, and politics to steward religious properties so that everyone flourishes.

Sympara reactivates faith properties for the common good by engaging congregations in peer-learning experiences. In partnership with Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Sympara is currently guiding 17 congregations in three cohorts in Chicago, Charlotte, and North Carolina’s Triad region to (1) discern property reuses that create social impact and strengthen the faith community’s financial sustainability, (2) connect aging congregations with age-diverse neighbors to create hopeful futures through participatory design and asset mapping, and (3) prepare the congregations to work with developers and other partners to bring their visions to fruition. Our “pre-pre-development” focus ensures that congregations are ready for the multiyear journey of redevelopment.

 

Curriculum

 

Each congregation convenes a cohort committee of four to six leaders, divided between members and community stakeholders. The cohort experience of eight to 12 months includes: 

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• Full-day opening and closing events.

• Monthly peer-learning exchanges.

• Theological reflection on identity, community, hospitality, and stewardship.

• Introduction to historical and contemporary models of faith-rooted community development.

• Field trips to learn from other congregations that have built affordable housing or reactivated space for social-impact uses.

• Asset-mapping with neighbors to make visible resources, strengths, and opportunities.

• Site analysis, financial feasibility, and initial site sketches.

• Design sprints that lead to short-term experiments in property reuse.

• Individual coaching on discernment and change management.

 

Criteria for Congregations

 

Sympara seeks to work with congregations that have:

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• Developable property — excess land and/or buildings that can be redesigned or reconstructed to make room for housing and other social-impact uses.

• Leadership capacity — passion, skill, and bandwidth in clergy and laity.

• Social capital — community relationships that can be leveraged.

• An expansive mission — a desire to reimagine the nature of spiritual community with neighbors of other faith traditions or no religious affiliation.

• If necessary, judicatory support.

• Spiritual health — the disposition, practices, and willingness to embark upon a journey that will take at least three to five years beyond the cohort experience.
   

Future Cohorts

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We are recruiting congregations in Texas, Greater Philadelphia, and the Triad and Triangle regions of North Carolina . Email Daniel Pryfogle to learn more.​​