Community gathering space
A commons designed for sacred ceremony, somatic circles, community dinners, and collective healing work.
stewardship & transparency
Impact & Invest
Stewardship requires transparency. This page exists to share what has been built, how resources are used, and how community members, funders, partners, and supporters can help sustain the work.
the liberation method · sacred ceremony · land
The Healing Homestead Collective
One space where The Liberation Method meets sacred ceremony.
The Healing Homestead is where somatic healing, liberation education, community repair, and spiritual practice converge — rooted in land, held in ritual, and grounded in the belief that collective healing is the foundation for transformation.
We are Desireé B. Stephens, founder of The Liberation Method™ — a structured practice for moving from awareness to embodied action to transmission. Her work sits at the intersection of somatic practice, education, and community repair.
We are QuiAnna Ray (LadySpeech), Hoodoo Reverend and liberation-centered spiritual teacher. She holds our sacred ceremonies, movement work, and spiritual rooting.
Together, we have created a physical commons in Southwest Atlanta where people can practice liberation not as theory, but as embodied, relational, land-based reality.
what this ecosystem holds
- Somatic healing & nervous system education — trauma-informed practice rooted in The Liberation Method
- Sacred ceremony & spiritual practice — led by LadySpeech, grounded in hoodoo tradition and movement work
- Land-based food sovereignty & healing — growing food, herbal education, seasonal rhythms
- Liberation-centered education — for youth, families, and communities seeking cultural rooting and creative expression
- Community care & mutual aid — collective practice without shame, with dignity
- Creative expression as transformation — art, ritual, storytelling, movement as healing
This is not a program. This is a living practice.
the problem we solve
People are disconnected
In a culture that asks us to live in our heads — disconnected from sensation, from earth, from ritual, from collective power — healing becomes isolated, individual, and extractive.
We see
- People experiencing burnout, dysregulation, and disconnection — from their bodies, from each other, from land
- Youth lacking cultural rooting, creative expression, and authentic belonging — forced into systems that don't honor who they are
- Communities without spaces for collective healing and sacred practice — where repair happens together, not alone
- Healing work separated from land, ritual, and spiritual accountability — extracted from the bodies and communities that sustain it
This fragmentation costs us. It costs our bodies. It costs our children. It costs our collective power.
we believe something different
Liberation happens in community.
Healing is embodied. Transformation requires land, ritual, and the people who hold it. It requires practice, not performance. It requires witness, not judgment.
The Healing Homestead exists to practice a different way.
our reach
We are rooted in Southwest Atlanta and serve globally.
Community is wealth. Collaboration is decolonization.
We work with practitioners, organizations, and supporters across the U.S. and beyond — believing that healing and liberation work is strengthened through diverse partnerships and collective knowledge-sharing.
2025 founding impact report
What this work made possible
Where liberation comes home to land.
Selenite & Sage Healing Homestead was created as a living practice of liberation, healing, nourishment, and belonging. Rooted in land-based care, the Homestead exists to remind us that liberation is not only theoretical. It is relational. It is embodied. It is grown, gathered, practiced, fed, and sustained in community.
In 2025, Selenite & Sage began laying the foundation for a healing homestead where people could reconnect with land, self, culture, community, and ancestral wisdom — a commitment to whole-self healing, decolonization, food sovereignty, collective care, and the belief that rest, safety, creativity, and belonging are essential parts of liberation.
The Healing Homestead was born in response to a culture of disconnection: from our bodies, from the land, from each other, from our resources, from our creativity, and from our collective power. Our response was not to build another isolated program. Our response was to build an ecosystem.
- A place where the land is teacher.
- A place where food is care.
- A place where nervous system regulation is liberation work.
- A place where youth are present, not future.
- A place where mutual aid moves with dignity.
- A place where culture, creativity, and community are essentials.
- A place where liberation comes home to land.
2025 at a glance
$12,694.87
Known 2025 community support
$5,204.00
Mobilized for Feed the Family
$6,852.88
Mobilized for the Permanent Homestead
83
Unique Zeffy supporters
105
Succeeded Zeffy payments
14
Recurring monthly supporters
- Secured a physical home base in Southwest Atlanta (exact address shared with Collective members)
- Raised $12,694.87 in known 2025 support through Zeffy and direct checks
- Mobilized $5,204.00 for Feed the Family
- Mobilized $6,852.88 for the Permanent Homestead / Housing Fund
- Received support from 83 unique Zeffy supporters across 105 succeeded payments
- Received 33 recurring Zeffy payments from 14 recurring supporters
- Responded to food insecurity during disrupted EBT/SNAP access
- Began building an ongoing free pantry and shaping a community garden
- Created the foundation for land-based gatherings, somatic education, food support, youth and family care, and stewardship
This was the year the work came home.
the home base
A home base in Southwest Atlanta
The biggest financial and material milestone of 2025 was procuring a physical home base in Southwest Atlanta. It gave the vision somewhere to land — moving Selenite & Sage from idea into infrastructure, from online community into embodied, land-based practice.
To keep the homestead safe and sacred, the exact address is shared only with members of The Collective, so they know where to show up.
- A movement needs somewhere to breathe.
- A garden needs soil.
- A pantry needs shelves.
- A circle needs a place to gather.
- A community needs a doorway.
- A vision needs a home.
The Southwest Atlanta home base became the beginning of a physical container for the Healing Homestead ecosystem: a place where food could be grown, neighbors could gather, children could help in the garden, and community care could be practiced in real time. Not only a housing milestone — a liberation infrastructure milestone.
2025 financial snapshot
Fund & campaign totals
The financial records reviewed for this report include Zeffy campaign activity beginning in October 2025, along with two direct check contributions shared for the 2025 impact report.
| Fund / Campaign | Zeffy | Check | Known 2025 Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed the Family Fund | $3,204.00 | $2,000.00 | $5,204.00 |
| Permanent Homestead / Housing Fund | $1,852.88 | $5,000.00 | $6,852.88 |
| Help Me Found My Church | $637.99 | — | $637.99 |
| Total | $5,694.87 | $7,000.00 | $12,694.87 |
These numbers show the beginning of a community-funded ecosystem. People were not only donating to an idea — they were helping make a home base, a pantry, a garden, emergency food support, and future programming possible.
feed the family
Mutual aid in real time
One of the clearest impacts of 2025 was the Feed the Family campaign, launched as families faced disrupted EBT/SNAP access, rising food costs, government shutdown impacts, and the everyday reality of trying to meet basic needs without enough support.
Selenite & Sage responded quickly.
- Not with shame.
- Not with barriers.
- Not with hoops for people to jump through.
- Not with charity that separates giver from receiver.
The Feed the Family campaign moved as mutual aid: direct, relational, dignified, and responsive. Food moved quickly. Support moved with care. People were believed. Families were fed. Dignity was protected.
“It was not just the eggs. It was the invitation. They did not feel like they were bothering anyone. They felt welcomed.”
“After panicking about SNAP not receiving more funding, she reached out for help. The next day, groceries arrived at her door — she described feeling seen, loved, and reminded that community can still show up.”
“True horizontal mutual aid — no barrier, no application, no judgment, just love and effort.”
“A neighbor walked over after seeing work happening in the garden. Groceries were tight that week. Instead of being handed food and sent away, they picked collards together. Their children rinsed them in the sink. They talked on the porch. The family left not feeling like they had taken something, but like they were part of something.”
Not only food distribution. A living reminder that people deserve to be fed and welcomed.
what this support made possible
Capacity, built together
In its founding stage, Selenite & Sage used community support to begin building capacity for:
- A Southwest Atlanta home base
- Emergency grocery and food support
- An ongoing free pantry
- A community garden
- Land-based healing and gathering
- Food sovereignty and community nourishment
- Family support and youth liberation education
- Somatic healing and nervous system education
- Restorative and culturally rooted healing practices
- Community care, mutual aid, and belonging
- Arts, culture, storytelling, poetry, and creative expression
- Leadership, stewardship, and shared responsibility
This work is not designed to move people through a program and send them away. The Homestead is being built as a place people can enter through the doorway that calls to them and be held by the larger ecosystem.
looking toward 2026
Strengthening the ecosystem
The roots planted in 2025 are preparing the way for deeper work in 2026 — an ongoing free pantry, community garden, land-based gatherings, somatic education, food support, creative programming, and community-rooted leadership.
- The Summer Series of Poetry
- LadySpeech's services and movement work
- Somatic Sundays
- Continued food support and pantry stewardship
- Community garden development
- Healing circles and land-based gatherings
- Youth and family-centered programming
- Creative expression, storytelling, and cultural work
- Expanded stewardship opportunities
As this work grows, the invitation remains the same: to build a world where liberation is not distant, abstract, or individual — but practiced together, resourced together, fed together, and returned to the land.
closing reflection
The work came home
2025 was the year Selenite & Sage Healing Homestead began becoming real in the world. A home base was secured. Families were fed. A garden began to take shape. A pantry began to emerge. Supporters gathered around the vision. Stories of care, dignity, and belonging began to show what this work makes possible.
The Homestead is still young. The infrastructure is still growing. The ecosystem is still being tended. But the roots are here.
- They are in Southwest Atlanta.
- They are in the families who received food.
- They are in the neighbors who felt welcomed.
- They are in the supporters who gave.
- They are in the children who asked to return to the garden.
- They are in every person who remembered they were not alone.
Selenite & Sage Healing Homestead is where liberation comes home to land. And in 2025, the work came home.
where we're headed
The Healing Homestead Commons · 2026–2028
The next phase is not about maintaining. It's about deepening and expanding the practice: a physical commons that serves as the integrated hub for the entire ecosystem.
What $250k enables in Phase 2.
Coworking commons
Flexible workspace supporting organizers, artists, educators, and community leaders doing liberation work.
Learning center
Workshops, trainings, certifications, and educational programming across all seven pathways of the ecosystem.
Land stewardship hub
Expanded garden, herbal medicine production, seed saving, food preservation, and seasonal rituals.
Resource & mutual aid hub
Coordination for community support, referrals, emergency assistance, and collective care.
Creative expression space
Studio space for arts, music, performance, storytelling, and cultural work.
impact by 2028
With full ecosystem funding, we project:
- Serving 1,000+ community members annually
- Distributing $100k+ in direct support (food, stipends, scholarships)
- Training 50+ community leaders and practitioners
- Growing food on 2+ acres
- Operating year-round programming across all seven pathways
- Creating sustainable livelihoods for facilitators and organizers
This is not aspirational. This is infrastructural. This is what communities need.
invest in this work
We welcome partnerships
The Collective is a fundable, accountable, community-rooted vehicle for the work many funders say they want to support — built with the people closest to it.
Individual major donors
$10,000 – $100,000+
Naming opportunities: fund a program pathway, sponsor a gathering space, support a year of operations.
See your funding directly change lives and deepen collective practice in our community.
Foundations & philanthropic organizations
Project-based grants, multi-year commitments, capacity building support.
Focus areas: somatic healing justice, youth development, liberation education, community infrastructure, arts and culture, economic empowerment.
Corporate partners
$5,000 – $50,000+
Employee volunteer days, team retreats, community investment programs.
Alignment: mission-driven companies building community infrastructure and supporting liberation work.
Local government & public health
Grant partnerships, community development funding, healthcare innovation grants.
Focus: health equity, nervous system wellness, youth mental health, food sovereignty, community healing.
Faith communities & cultural institutions
Collaborative programming, resource sharing, co-sponsored events, spiritual partnership.
Alignment: liberation theology, community care, cultural healing, spiritual rooting.
Community investors
Equity-based giving, community development finance, cooperative investment.
Focus: sustainable, accountable, community-rooted growth.
building together
Our Strategic Partners
The Healing Homestead Collective doesn't operate in isolation.
We are woven into a larger ecosystem of liberation-rooted organizations, practitioners, educators, and community leaders — all working toward collective thriving.
Our partnerships are rooted in shared values: liberation, community care, cultural affirmation, and transformational change.
Together, we are stronger.
LadySpeech
Hoodoo Reverend, movement work, sacred ceremony, and cultural rooting. QuiAnna Ray (LadySpeech) is Vice President of the Healing Homestead Board and leads our sacred programming, ritual, and community ceremonies.
Visit LadySpeechBrain Bloom Consulting
Neurodiverse-affirming consulting and community support. Telania Smith (Brain Bloom founder and Healing Homestead Treasurer) brings neurodiversity wisdom to our youth and family programming, ensuring our work honors all minds.
Visit Brain Bloom ConsultingWarrior Artists
Arts + leadership institute rooted in Southwest Atlanta. Founded by Tony M. Foster, Warrior Artists integrates creative expression, cultural rooting, and leadership development for young people. We collaborate on youth pathways and creative programming.
Parenting Decolonized
Liberation-centered parenting education led by Yolanda Williams. Partners in our "Parenting for Liberation" programming, bringing decolonized approaches to family healing and youth support.
Visit Parenting DecolonizedThrive University
Education and empowerment programming led by Jayson Smith. Thrive University partners in our youth and family education, bringing transformational learning approaches to our collective healing work.
Visit Thrive UniversityEverything Empanadas
Community food enterprise and nourishment rooted in care. Monique Johnson (Everything Empanadas founder and Healing Homestead Secretary) brings food sovereignty practices and entrepreneurship support to our economic justice work.
Visit Everything EmpanadasAre you a community organization or practitioner aligned with liberation work? We welcome partnerships.
Explore Partnership Opportunitieswhere your money goes
Funders deserve to know exactly how their support is used
Here is what the founding year of the Collective looked like in dollars.
Total 2025 support · $12,694.87
| Fund | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|
Permanent Homestead Commons (Physical Gathering Space) Home base operations, land stewardship, physical infrastructure for gatherings, ceremonies, and community practice. | $6,852.88 | 54% |
Feed the Family (Direct Community Care) Direct food support, groceries, emergency nutrition, community meals. | $5,204.00 | 41% |
Help Me Found My Church (Spiritual Foundation) Spiritual foundation, community care coordination, sacred ceremony. | $637.99 | 5% |
operational spend breakdown
- Direct service to community87%
- Food support, stipends, scholarships, direct aid, gathering supplies.
- Operations & infrastructure13%
- Home base, utilities, land maintenance, basic operations.
- Administration & fundraising0%
- All work is volunteer-powered at this founding stage.
- Facilitator compensation2026+
- In 2025, facilitators and organizers offered their labor in service to the vision. As we scale, fair compensation for all labor is a non-negotiable priority.
2026 budget priorities
From 180 people served to 1,000+ annually
| Year-round food security & pantry operations | $85,000 |
| Facilitator compensation & workforce development | $75,000 |
| Commons development & infrastructure | $50,000 |
| Programming & community gatherings | $25,000 |
| Operations & sustainability | $15,000 |
| Total 2026 goal | $250,000 |
Every dollar is tracked. Every program is measured. We are accountable to our community first.
steward this ecosystem
Sustaining this work requires resources
We need support for
- land maintenance and improvement
- stipends for facilitators and community members
- scholarships so people can access sliding scale programs
- materials for gardens, arts, and youth programming
- travel and skill-sharing
- infrastructure, tools, seeds, supplies
Ways to steward
One-time gift
Support a specific program or season.
Monthly stewardship
Become a sustaining member of the ecosystem.
Major gift or sponsorship
Partner in a specific program area.
In-kind contribution
Land work, materials, skills.
Volunteer your time
Join stewardship efforts on the land or in circles.
community-led stewardship
Board of Directors
The Collective is guided by a Board of Directors committed to transparency, accountability, and community-rooted leadership.
Desireé B. Stephens
President, Founder
Operations, strategy, ecosystem coordination.
Founder of The Liberation Method™, somatic practitioner and liberation educator with a track record in building community infrastructure for embodied healing.
QuiAnna Ray (LadySpeech)
Vice President
Movement work, community care, cultural rooting, sacred ceremony.
Hoodoo Reverend and liberation-centered spiritual teacher. Decades of cultural and spiritual leadership, including Liberation Nights ATL.
Telania Smith
Treasurer
Financial stewardship, operations, accountability, neurodiverse-affirming practice.
Founder of Brain Bloom Consulting. Background in finance, nonprofit accountability, and operational stewardship rooted in neurodiversity wisdom.
Monique Johnson
Secretary
Community coordination, documentation, communication, food sovereignty.
Founder of Everything Empanadas. Community organizing, documentation, and communications work rooted in food sovereignty and care.
advisory council
- Kay Coughlinhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jkcoughlin/
- Lindsay Renea Bentonhttps://theatredance.ua.edu/people/lindsay-renae-benton/
- Amy Brighthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-bright/
this structure ensures
- Community accountability
- Financial transparency
- Multi-generational leadership
- Shared decision-making
- Care-centered operations
help build what communities deserve
More than a program. More than a building.
The Healing Homestead Collective is a living ecosystem designed to help people move from survival toward belonging.
Become a member
Join our growing community of supporters sustaining this work.
→Make a major gift
$10k, $25k, $50k+ to fund a program area or year of operations.
→Partner with us
Foundations, corporations, institutions, faith communities — start the conversation.
→Attend an event
Experience the ecosystem. See the upcoming gatherings calendar.
→continue