THE FIRESOUL NETWORK

Nature Sacred · Since 1996

What makes a Sacred Place thrive?

Thirty years of listening taught us what matters most.

Two men in hats smiling in a community garden

Two men in hats making a heart shape with their hands outdoors

Amazing Port Street
Baltimore, MD

WHAT WE DISCOVERED

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Rooted in listening. Proven in practice.

In 1996, Kitty and Tom Stoner founded Nature Sacred to reconnect people with nature through community-led greenspaces. Twenty years in, we went back to 40 of the nearly 100 Sacred Places that had opened by then, asking a simple question: why do some thrive? The answer came back twice over. Every thriving place had a devoted local caretaker — a Firesoul™. And every one kept inviting its community back in, until the place felt like theirs. Those two findings inspired the Firesoul Network.

The backstory

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The question

Why do some places thrive?

By 2016, nearly 100 Sacred Places had been created. We wanted to discover what differentiated the most thriving.

The fieldwork

So we went and asked.

We visited almost half of Sacred Places, sitting down with more than 40 Firesouls to understand what actually made a place last.

Pattern one

Every place needs a caretaker.

Thriving places always had a dedicated Firesoul—sometimes the original champion, sometimes someone who stepped in years later. Someone felt responsible.

Pattern two

A continual invitation to return.

Through programs, events, and everyday use, thriving places kept reminding their communities that the space belonged to them. Stewardship was cultivating belonging, not just maintaining a landscape.

2018

So we organized around them.

The Firesoul Network turned those findings into practice, connecting Firesouls to each other, funding them on trust, and staying for the life of the place.

WHAT IS A FIRESOUL

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Local leaders, lasting impact.

We call them Firesouls, for the spark they carry into this work.

Smiling woman in an orange jacket and Firesoul shirt holding a tote bag

Firesouls are the stewards of Sacred Places, and none of them are on our staff. They are nonprofit leaders, educators, nurses, faith leaders, parks staff, artists, organizers, and volunteers. What unites them isn't a job title. It's a sense of responsibility for one particular piece of ground, and for the people it belongs to.

What they do is different from maintenance. They invite people in. They notice who hasn't come yet. They make sure each new generation feels welcomed. And because every Firesoul and every Sacred Place is different, there is no single model for stewardship.

200+

Firesouls now form the national Nature Sacred Firesoul Network, first launched in 2018.

HOW WE SUPPORT

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When we invest in Firesouls, we invest in the future of Sacred Places

The long-term vitality of Sacred Places takes two kinds of support, so we built a Network to do both. We stand beside the Firesoul, connecting them to others doing the same work and giving them what they need to keep going. And we help them activate the space, so the community feels it's theirs.

Group of Firesouls and community members posing together outdoors

Peer connection, funding offered on trust, and people who know the work—so no one holds a place together alone.

Care and connection

Neighbors playing cornhole on a lawn at a Nature Sacred community event

Festivals, programs, and ordinary afternoons—the steady invitations that tell a neighborhood the place is theirs.

Resources and activation

WHICH TOGETHER CREATE

Two men talking on a bench in a shaded garden

Learning Journeys and gatherings where Firesouls walk each other’s places and trade what actually works—the habit that keeps a Sacred Place alive for decades.

Long-term sustainability

Learning Journeys and gatherings where Firesouls walk each other’s places and trade what actually works—the habit that keeps a Sacred Place alive for decades.

Long-term sustainability

WHAT THE NETWORK MAKES POSSIBLE

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PEER TO PEER

An idea rarely stays where it started.

Sacred Places are local. The knowledge that keeps them going doesn't have to be. We go deep in one place, and we connect across many. That relationship—within a community and between communities—is the Firesoul Network.

A Firesoul in Baltimore learns from a Firesoul in Alabama. What works in a hospital courtyard travels to a schoolyard three states away. We bring Firesouls together—at gatherings, on calls, in each other's places—to share what they know, trade what works, and carry each other's load.

EXPLORE

Find a Sacred Place near you.

A directory of Sacred Places across the country, and the Firesouls who tend them.

Find a Sacred Place near you.

A directory of Sacred Places across the country, and the Firesouls who tend them.

Hospital staff reviewing design boards for a new Sacred Place

How a Sacred Place comes to be.

Our design process begins with deep listening—and design becomes community building.

How a Sacred Place comes to be.

Our design process begins with deep listening—and design becomes community building.

The real work begins after the ribbon is cut.

Stand with the people who stay. Join the movement, and help sustain a Sacred Place for as long as it stands.

Join the Movement

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