Sara Joy Proppe: Helping Churches Use Placemaking To Connect With the Community
Apr 11, 2024
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Urban planner Sara Joy Proppe discusses how churches can use placemaking to connect with their community, highlighting the importance of creating vibrant public spaces. She explores examples of churches engaging in small-scale projects, repurposing land for affordable housing, and practical steps for community engagement.
Placemaking helps churches connect with communities through vibrant public spaces.
Churches repurposing properties for affordable housing can address housing crises and benefit neighborhoods.
Deep dives
Churches Improving Communities through Place Making
Improving communities through place making involves leveraging what individuals enjoy doing to enhance cities. Sarah Joy Prope, an urban planner with Proximity Project, advocates for harnessing church properties for placemaking to connect with local communities.
Placemaking Defined
Placemaking is about creating vibrant public spaces that foster connections and relationships among people. Sarah Joy's experience in public spaces like farmers markets and public plazas in Peru fueled her passion for placemaking, emphasizing the art of developing spaces that bring individuals together.
Transforming Church Properties for Greater Community Impact
Innovative projects at churches, like transforming church properties into affordable housing and community spaces, demonstrate a shift towards more direct community impact. Sarah Joy's work with churches like Calvary Lutheran showcases how churches can repurpose their spaces to benefit the neighborhood.
Challenges and Opportunities in Church-Led Development
Churches delving into real estate development face challenges but also great potential to address housing crises. By partnering with developers, churches can play a role in providing affordable housing and influencing innovative housing models like missing middle housing, contributing constructively to their communities.
Sara Joy Proppe is a native of Texas, but lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has a degree in urban planning, and has over a decade of professional experience and managing private real estate development projects, as well as leading community placemaking workshops throughout the Midwest. She's the founder and director of Proximity Project, a consultancy that helps churches discover how they can use placemaking to connect with the local community.