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Preserving California’s Sacred Places

Thursday, March 26th | 12pm-1pm Pacific

You don’t have to belong to a congregation to care about the sacred places in your neighborhood. Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other religious buildings are so much more than houses of worship: they often serve as cultural centers, supporting education and the arts; civic centers of political engagement and volunteerism; social centers, improving wellness and public health, especially for children, seniors, and the unhoused; and, increasingly, centers of community resilience during natural disasters and other emergencies. Sacred places are critical links in your community’s social infrastructure.

Since 1989, Partners for Sacred Places–a national, non-sectarian, nonprofit organization–has helped historic religious property owners care for their buildings and engage with their communities, often in collaboration with advocacy organizations such as the California Preservation Foundation. In this one-hour webinar presentation, staff from Partners will describe the vulnerability and vitality that characterizes American congregational life today, followed by an overview of the different capacity-building programs and consulting services that Partners provides. The webinar will include case studies from California and an introduction to the National Fund for Sacred Places, including the Intervention Fund, which provides congregations with the financial and technical support necessary to complete capital and planning projects in the wake of an emergency. Visit www.sacredplaces.org and then join Partners to learn more about all of the funding, training, technical support, and other resources are available to support California’s beautiful, diverse, and community-serving sacred places!

Speakers

Kevin Block, Ph.D. (Director of Special Initiatives)
Kevin works across programs, consulting, and research at Partners. Trained as a cultural and architectural historian, he received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Partners, he taught across the humanities and design fields at Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Pittsburgh, and Thomas Jefferson University. He also has worked with commercial developers, advocacy organizations, neighborhood associations, and individual property owners as a historic preservation consultant. Kevin serves, or has served, on the boards of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, the Center for the Preservation of Modernism (Thomas Jefferson University), the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance (the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia), and his local historical architectural review board.

Rachel Galton (Intervention Fund Director)
Rachel Galton is the Intervention Fund Director at Partners for Sacred Places. She supports congregations recovering from unanticipated emergencies, grounded in the belief that moments of crisis can become powerful opportunities to imagine new possibilities. Prior to joining Partners, Rachel worked in public service, with a focus on embedding equity in government programs. As a transportation planner, she developed a passion for resilience work while recommending transportation solutions for individuals displaced by climate disasters. As a data analyst, she built capacity to direct local government funding equitably, supporting programs for climate resilience, emergency response, and participatory budgeting. She saw the impact faith congregations can have amidst unexpected disasters while supporting an emergency shelter project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rachel holds a BA in Sociology and Policy Studies from Rice University.

Posted in: Advocacy, Funding, Grants, Webinars