HISTORY

Village of Love and Resistance (“VOLAR”) is a black and brown-led collective with more than 100 years of experience of living, working, worshiping, studying and playing, and praying in East Baltimore. VOLAR plans to renovate and transform a facility into a community and wellness center as well as rebuild and

reinvest into the surrounding area through engagement of the people and implementing neighborhood development projects. We will use a community investment trust fund model to assure investment by legacy residents within several zip codes of our community center. This project is an effort for local residents to co-own and co-lead the redevelopment of their majority black and low income neighborhood(s).

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This community engaged business model is based on theMarket Creek Plaza in San Diego and Mercy Corps Northwest in Portland Oregon, which were designed, built and eventually [to be] owned by neighborhood residents in order to remove barriers to financial inclusion and provide low-dollar investment opportunities in commercial and/or residential properties to local residents.