Press Release: Sustain Our Future Foundation Launches Reparative Land Collective Grant Program for Transformative Land Stewardship
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November 25, 2024
Sustain Our Future Foundation (SOFF), a national nonprofit organization, announces grant awards to the inaugural cohort of Reparative Land Collective grantee partners. This collective of Black, Indigenous, Brown, and other land stewards of color are dedicated to implementing ecosystem restoration strategies.
As part of the inaugural awardees, 12 organizations from across the nation were nominated to join this growing community of land healers. Through the Reparative Land Collective, grantee organizations will have access to technical assistance in the form of legal advising, land assessment, permitting, and infrastructure planning, in addition to the capital grants they receive.
“It’s time to reclaim land near communities most impacted by food deserts and Atlanta’s effort to displace Black and Native folks. By being in community with the Reparative Land Collective, we are beginning an acquisition effort of a Southeast Atlanta landscape to challenge the city's decision to build Cop City. With guidance from Amplify Atlanta’s community-led redesign guidebook we will design a strategy to work with the community to build a space that will include beekeeping, a community garden, and biomimicry-inspired buildings constructed with Georgia’s natural resources.” – BlackTooEarth
The Reparative Land Collective’s strategy, created in deep collaboration with SOFF’s community advisory board composed of BIPOC land stewarding and land servicing organizations, demonstrates a commitment to restoring humanity’s relationship with natural ecosystems through land ReMatriation and advancing agroecological practices.
“Land ReMatriation and land justice is the only vision of land reform on Turtle Island that honors Indigenous sovereignty and material reparations for African Americans. Through the Reparative Land Collective, we are coming together in solidarity to ensure BIPOC land stewards have the capital and resources to achieve just that.” – Aissa Dearing, Regenerative Economy Program Manager
Listed below are the awarded grantee partners and their restorative work.
Help For Landowners (South Carolina, National): Serving landholders by ensuring they have sustainable revenue streams from their land, by educating and providing nurturing ground services, such as harvesting, replanting, and managing controlled burns.
National Black Food and Justice Alliance (Georgia, National) NBFJA is a coalition of Black-led organizations working towards cultivating and advancing Black leadership, building self-determination, institution building and organizing for food sovereignty, land and justice.
Savanna Institute (Wisconsin, Regional): Creating opportunities for farmers across the Midwest to integrate trees with crops and pastures to diversify their incomes and landscapes, raise healthy food, and make their local communities more resilient.
Center for Heirs Property Preservation (South Carolina, Regional): Protects Heirs’ Property and promotes its sustainable use to provide increased economic benefit to historically under-served families.
San Diego New Roots (San Diego, California): A horticulture farm in San Diego that provides space for immigrants to enact sovereign food futures.
The Great Plains Action Society (Iowa, Regional): An Indigenous-led advocacy organization looking to ReMatriate Iowa’s prairie, healing an enduring legacy of agricultural and chemical pollution in the soils, air, and waterways.
BlackTooEarth (Atlanta, Georgia): A Black-led community organization in Atlanta looking to acquire land at the border of Cop City, aiming to create stewardship, community, and intentional consumption amongst their neighbors.
Sanctuary Farms (Detroit, Michigan): An urban farm in Detroit looking to construct a biomimicry-inspired composting facility and community space for residents of Riverbend.
The Earthseed Land Collective (Durham, North Carolina): On 48 acres of land in North Durham, NC they are growing a center for community resilience, collective healing, cultural arts, food justice, food sovereignty and cooperative learning.
Ukwakhwa Foods (Oneida Reservation): On 10 acres of land on the Oneida Reservation, they are serving a place where the community comes to learn about planting, growing, harvesting, seed keeping, food preparation, food storage, as well as making traditional tools and crafts.
Hmong American Farmers Association (Twin Cities, Minnesota): Advancing the prosperity of Hmong American farmers through cooperative endeavors, capacity building and advocacy.
The Elderberry Wisdom Farm (Marion County, Oregon): provides opportunities for Indigenous youth to strengthen their traditional ties with the land and to build career pathways in agriculture and horticulture, thereby deepening cultural identity and personal resiliency.
For more information about the Reparative Land Collective or to support Sustain Our Future Foundation’s mission, please visit sustainourfuture.org or contact Aissa Dearing at aissa@sustainourfuture.org.
About Sustain Our Future Foundation
Sustain Our Future Foundation is a national, impact organization that works to transform sustainable development to maximize equitable community benefits and achieve environmental justice. By redistributing profits from sustainable development projects into community-driven grant programs, the Foundation works to create a health-oriented, equitable and regenerative economy. Our grant programs empower communities to define and pursue their own outcomes while strengthening their capacity to address environmental challenges. For more information, visit sustainourfuture.org.