The Cobblestone Project was founded in April 2008 by families who were committed to stepping forward to make a meaningful difference in their community. The motivation of this movement to action was the belief that every person has a unique and immeasurable value by virtue of their shared human story. These families believe that this human story is defined by a movement towards the restoration of the image that all people were created in. They believe that every human heart deserves dignity, respect and the opportunity to fully realize their beauty.
When a community of people engages together in bringing to light those whose image can not fully be achieved, true change begins to take place.
The dream of the Cobblestone Project is to work towards
“A Community Without Need”
The strategy to take these ideas and turn them into action will be approached by 1) Identifying Issues of Social Justice, 2) Connecting Needs with Willing Resources and 3) Fulfilling Needs with Sustainable Solutions.
The dream or vision of the Cobblestone Project is likely considered unachievable. However, when the concepts of community are redefined to expose and frame the true needs of our neighbors, change is the only natural response.
As the cultural rapidly moves forward, fueled by the emergence of social media platforms, the “traditional nuclear family” is able to reconnect and re-center itself without considering the context of geography. New groups and communities are being defined and redefined very rapidly. However, the most significant change may be the ability to discover people with similar hearts and minds more easily now in a way that is potentially unprecedented in history.
Our dream of “A Community Without Need,” first gives permission to people to form communities around common causes or beliefs and second, gives permission to invite more and more people to their circle of community.
These newly formed communities that are founded upon common values and principles become very appealing to all. Catalyzed by social media, the visibility and accountability of the group to uphold these principles and virtues is quickly taking on the functions of becoming the new institutions of our time.
“A Community” can be defined as a family, a collection of individual people, a street, a city, a state, a nation or even the world.
When a community is “Without” it indicates that something has been removed in a way that has solved the issue or circumstances that lead to it being present in the first place.
“Needs” can be community or self identified but include social needs, physical needs, emotional needs and spiritual needs.
Our vision is a community established around the idea that needs are continually in the process of being removed, more people being welcomed to the community, the care of each individual is holistic in scope. We do not believe this is solely limited to just external conditions, which are often more obvious but sometime less meaningful compared to the restoration of the soul.