OUR GUIDING ETHOS
Every element of New Seneca Village was designed using our definition of Right Relationship to ensure that
all of our offerings and work are in alignment with our mission.
​We develop our organizational structure, governance models, offerings, partnerships and funding relationships within the following principles in order to practice creating a Just Future today.
INTERCONNECTION
Everything on this planet is intimately and inextricably connected.
Our interconnection reinforces our deep understanding of the rightness of justice and of the necessity of transformative community.
Interconnection proves that resources are for all and that there is “enough” for everyone.
RESTORATION
The intentional healing and returning of a person to their Self and their purpose, to their community and to their humanity is a contribution to society.
Restoration honors the sovereignty and contribution of an individual so that they live their purpose from a resourced place.
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EVOLUTION
Endowed with infinite potential, humanity is fully capable of creating a Just future, wherein all beings on this planet are free to live with dignity, agency and access to resources in abundance.
How we intend to practice as we expand and grow
Living Wage + Salary Ratios
in practice on mission
Staff will receive generous compensation and benefits packages, including meals.
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Salaries will be competitive to the nearest international market, with no gaps between “white collar” and “blue collar” jobs.
We will prioritize hiring local BIPOC staff.
Mission-Driven
Land Trust
Element of Big Vision
Within seven years of sustained operation, NSV will transition to a mission-driven land trust model.
This will ensure, in perpetuity, right stewardship of the land alongside ongoing operations of the retreat center and network, supported by the founding endowment.
Vendor Ecosystem
in practice on mission
NSV has a commitment to source Black, Indigenous and people of color vendors for all of our needs, including supplies and services, with a local vendor contract commitment of at least 15%.
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NSV is committed to lifting up and amplifying this vendor ecosystem.
Community Governance
in practice on mission
New Seneca Village (NSV) will be governed by a board of Black, Indigenous and people of color leaders.
Board membership will be made up of 1/3 Native residents of the land on which NSV is built with remaining member seats filled by NSV Villagers, 35% of whom will be Black American descendants of American/Caribbean enslaved ancestors.
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Villagers at large will participate in decision-making through surveys and quarterly Town Halls.
Social Catalyst Funds
Once endowed
Community governed funds that receive 2.5% of New Seneca Village's endowment for local, national and international investment in social innovation projects.
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Place Fund: Invests in local BIPOC initiatives within NSV’s home county with 50% local Indigenous Leadership.
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Expansion Fund: Invests in national & international BIPOC initiatives with at least 50% Black American Leadership
Design Build Team
Element of Big Vision
New Seneca Village is designed to center BIPOC women, ensure right relationship land stewardship and equal access.
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We will hire a Design Team of BIWOC professionals; architects, interior and landscape designers, disability access experts, and a design centered psychologist to develop a design that is accessible, inclusive and inspiring.
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We will lift up and amplify above professionals as part of our Design Team Challenge.
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Villagers participating in our pilot residencies will provide research & development for the Design Team.
New Seneca Village is named in honor of Seneca Village,
a community founded and led by free Black people
in New York City in 1825.
Seneca Village grew to boast 3 churches, a Black grade school and the highest rates of home ownership in NYC. It was also one of the only integrated multi-racial communities in early NYC, welcoming Irish and German immigrants.
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This thriving village was destroyed
in order to build Central Park.
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New Seneca Village is designed with the intention to care
for one another as if we are all residents of a prosperous, inclusive and living community.
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Because we are.
People + Place Acknowledgement
National
As a remote organization whose pilot model includes travel to natural settings across the country, we acknowledge that we find ourselves on various stolen lands that are sacred to a number of Indigenous Peoples, including but not limited to Tribes, Nations, and Peoples such as: Coosati, Muskoke, Ohlone, Snohomish.
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We are grateful to the Indigenous Peoples who have cared for and stewarded these lands in Right Relationship from the beginning. We are clear that our ongoing presence on this land is egregious.
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Global
We also want to acknowledge all people who have been forced from their own indigenous lands, practices, ancestors and relationships due to de-humanizing economic, political, violent or climate related transgressions of others. As well as those whose labor and life force have been extracted and used in service of others before themselves.
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Labor
We acknowledge the legacy of slavery and the enslaved African people whose life force and labor was exploited for generations to help establish the economy of the United States and many other nations across the world.
By recognizing the land that was taken from First Americans, the forced labor that was provided by enslaved Africans and black people, and the ongoing extraction foundational to many of our systems and societies, we acknowledge that we understand the source trauma that has shaped our collective present.