Meet our Inaugural Invested Faith Fellows
Dear Friends of Invested Faith,
As you may have already heard, this month has been an exciting one with the naming of our first group of Invested Faith Fellows! Fellows are folks we’ve met who are doing the work of healing the world in nontraditional ways. Our goal at Invested Faith is to repurpose the assets of traditional institutions and deploy them to places they might not have helped otherwise, and these Fellows are the first tangible expression of that dream.
Below you’ll briefly meet our Fellows; over the next few months we’ll be telling their stories in more detail, giving you the opportunity to be inspired by their work as we have been. You’ll notice that all of the Fellows in this round happen to be women, and many of them women of color. That resources of the tradition are now reaching these tenacious innovators is a cause for celebration!
Invested Faith’s Advisory Board meets again next month with the goal of identifying our next class of Fellows before the end of 2021. You can be part of this inspirational work by making a tax-deductible gift to Invested Faith; by introducing institutions discerning legacy giving to the work of Invested Faith; and by sending the stories of potential fellows our way (read more about what we look for here).
In the meantime, thank you for your enthusiastic support and encouragement. Who knows? This might just be an idea whose time has come.
Meet our five inaugural Invested Faith Fellows
My’Kal Loftin - Charlottesville, Virginia
My'Kal Loftin is the founder of Green Wall Street, a collective working to strengthen social support connections across marginalized communities and to further understanding of ecological relationships. GWS began during the racial events in Charlottesville in August of 2017 and creates space and support for economic and social innovation both in Charlottesville and in partner cities.
Coté Soerens -
Seattle, Washington
Coté Soerens is the owner/midwife of Resistencia Coffee shop in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. She is the co-founder of Cultivate South Park, a non-profit that lends infrastructure to neighborhood community development projects such as the Urban Fresh Food Collective, Reconnect South Park, and the South Park Arts and Culture Collective.
Simone Jenkins -
Nashville, Tennessee
Simone Jenkins is an entrepreneur who started Lipstick Cult, a Black-owned lipstick brand that highlights global culture. Jenkins, who identifies as a person with a disability, is breaking through barriers as a business owner of color and plans to create programs for women with disabilities. Her Pink Door Project targeted breast cancer awareness, mammogram screenings and survivor support. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Safronia Perry -
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Safronia Perry established the Black Economic Growth Alliance (BEGA) to meet the needs of Black business owners in Carlisle and central Pennsylvania. Her plans are to offer networking and aid to Black-owned businesses including avenues to accounting, legal assistance, etc.
Alysia Nicole Harris -
Corsicana, Texas
Alysia Nicole Harris, Ph.D. is a Pushcart-nominated performance poet whose work is at the intersection of church and community building. Her first project, the East Side Chapel Revival Project in Corsicana, Texas, aims to restore and revive a historically significant Black church built in 1905 and to create space for local artists to offer their work.
Invested Faith in the News
Invested Faith Awards $5000 Grants to Five Inaugural Fellows Read our 7.15.21 Press Release
Investing Financial, Moral Capital Beyond Stained-Glass Walls Thanks to Zach Dawes, Jr and the team at Good Faith Media for a wonderful article about Invested Faith! We appreciate the good words!
Let us know if you would like to feature Invested Faith or one of our fellows in your publication. Contact anita@investedfaith.org or visit the Press Center on our website.
Spread the word! Help us build our audience by using your social media presence and word of mouth to tell others about this important work. Join us on Facebook and LInkedIn.
Support the ongoing development of Invested Faith through a tax-deductible gift. Click here to support our work.
Grant a social entrepreneur. If you’d like your gift to go directly to someone working innovatively to reimagine the faith community, your tax-deductible gift of $5000.00 can make that happen.
