Member Highlight: Community Building

Our mission is to host, inspire, and catalyze social change in the Spokane region. We create and maintain a beautiful collection of brick and mortar environments that enhance connectivity and human dignity. We have a campus of six buildings, starting with the Community Building our pioneer restoration project on Main Avenue. It provides beautiful, affordable office and gathering spaces to local nonprofits and serves as hub for community action. The old Saranac Hotel provides more affordable office and gathering spaces for nonprofit and businesses alike and operates on some of the cleanest and greenest technologies in the Inland Northwest. The member-owned Main Market Co-op benefits Spokane’s people, environment, and robust local food system and the Saranac Commons is an open-concept food and retail accelerator with informal meeting, gathering, and study spaces for public use.

In all of our spaces we hope to serve the whole person. That means having access to good healthy food, art, welcoming spaces to work, and generally building an inclusive community that knows each other and cares for one another. To that end, we host meals, happy hours, professional development series, and parties regularly to help support the relationships here and to build new ones.

What is one interesting fact about your space?

We think of the Community Building and both a noun and a verb. Having a welcoming place to gather is important to foster social change. Equally important are the relationships among the people who come to the spaces to gather, work, and play. We feel lucky to be able to support both aspects of community building.

What are your favorite resources that you would recommend to others?

We love the resources at Nonprofit Center Network and send people who are interested in community spaces to their website all the time.

Our founder, Jim Sheehan, also did a TedEx talk recently which describes more of our values and some of the concepts behind our work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRB6stxC6zg

Center Name: Community Building

Location: Spokane, WA

Center Website: www.community-building.org

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