BUILDING COMMUNITIES THROUGH BUILDING PROJECTS
THE OPPORTUNITY
3,000 acres of church property are underutilized in San Antonio. What if instead we activated them to meet needs in our community? Access to housing, green space, food, education, mental health resources, small business incubation. Churches across the country are realizing this and taking steps to make the most of their property for community problem-solving. If one acre of creatively-used church property could improve the lives of dozens of neighbors a year, just imagine how many families can be served with our unlocked potential. For many congregations, it is matter of capacity — having the resources and expertise to deliver such a vision. This is where we can help.
OUR MISSION
Good Acres mission is to bridge the gap between San Antonio’s 3000 acres of underutilized property owned by faith communities and neighborhood needs & opportunities — reimagining land for the flourishing of communities.
WHAT WE DO
We are a network of community and faith leaders exploring ways to creatively activate our resources and property for the good of our congregations, neighborhoods and city. We provide workshops, learning cohorts, tools, community engagement, project management and a network of professionals to build projects that build communities.
GOOD ACRES ROUNDTABLES
We host regular gatherings for faith leaders asking: How can our congregations use our resources to be good neighbors? Open to all, this is a space to share stories and resources in a network of support.
GOOD FUTURES ACCELERATOR
A 7-month learning cohort comprised of congregational teams from across San Antonio — Exploring how to reimagine their mission and money through a social enterprise, using their property.
PROJECT FACILITATION
We take a deep dive alongside your congregation and help you in areas such as: project goals, initial site feasibility, community engagement, development of an RFP and selection of a mission-aligned development partner.
JOIN US AT
GOOD ACRES ROUNDTABLES
“Good Acres has been an indispensable partner in helping us take our vision for activating our underutilized church property from concept to reality. We had a dream for what we wanted to do but did not have the professional experience, resources, or connections to know how to successfully create a clear program and hire an architect partners to execute it. Good Acres walked us through that process and helped us feel confident in making decisions as a team, including representatives from our congregation and neighborhood, and ultimately helped us secure the right architect partners to bring our projects to fruition.”
— Taylor Bates, Sunset Ridge Collective
STORIES & RESOURCES
CASE STUDY: IMPACT GUILD
A COMMUNITY PROJECT
The Impact Guild operated a social innovation coworking space and community center in a 6,000 square foot building in the heart of the neighborhood of Beacon Hill from 2017-2022. This hybrid project between The Impact Guild and the congregation of the Park Community Church activated an unutilized real-estate asset, provided a values-driven enterprise that meets needs in our community and allowed two organizations to build models of financial sustainability.
GOOD ACRES ROUNDTABLE
VIDEO SERIES
Before it was an in-person gathering, the Good Acres Roundtables were a video series of conversations featuring case studies of churches around the country that have reimagined their properties. These talks serve as a way to share learnings and experiences with our network of congregations and mission-minded development professionals. Join hosts Ramiro Gonzales and Elizabeth Coffee who respectively bring their real estate congregational leadership expertise to the table as they dive into a different project and set of challenges in each episode.
MISSION-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT
RESOURCES
In 2019, the MDDS brought together faith-leaders and mission-minded development professionals for a vision summit to reimagine congregation property for affordable housing and other community benefit projects co-hosted as a collaboration between Good Acres, the City of San Antonio and LISC San Antonio. View our resource page to watch the summit and access other resources and technical assistance from the presenting organizations.