Our Founding Story
We began as an idea…
Place Corps was founded in 2018, but began as an idea years earlier in a 12th grade economics class at the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, seeded in a conversation between Martin Ping, Executive Director of Hawthorne Valley Association and Matthew Stinchcomb, Executive Director of Good Work Institute. Matt and Martin began a conversation on their shared sentiment that education for young people needed to change. This conversation led them to build upon environmentalist David Orr’s belief that education for young people should be directed towards learning the skills needed to heal the earth, build new economies, and healthy communities; thus, the concept of a progressive learning program for young people was born.
“The skills, aptitudes, and attitudes necessary to industrialize the earth are not necessarily the same as those that will be needed to heal the Earth or to build durable economies and good communities.”
— David Orr
As actively engaged executive directors responsible for learning institutes, Matt and Martin recognized they needed another person to help make their idea a reality. Dawn Breeze, artist, educator, and founder of Instar Lodge, joined Matt and Martin as the third co-founder to actualize the initiative we know as Place Corps. Dawn brought her unique skill set as a social practice artist to design, later direct, Place Corps’ experiential learning programs and then build Know, Love, Serve,Inc. the 501c3 organization doing business as Place Corps.
In 2019, Place Corps launched as a residential gap year at Hawthorne Valley Farm for 18 to 25 year olds with an inaugural cohort of 8 participants coming from around the US. In the process of the pilot year, it was recognized that the learning offered by Place Corps should not be limited to a single program for 18 to 25 year olds. From this reimagining, Place Corps evolved to grow into place-specific transformational education programs including: residencies, fellowships, semester gap programs, and community learning.
The three co-founders each bring their individual history and experience to inform Place Corps like the three points of a triangle. The Place Corps triangle reads as a sacred geometry, a compass point that turns itself into a circle of wholeness. The sacred series of three extends to the mission of Place Corps: Know. Love. Serve. Guided by Place Corps’ mission, the triangle of founders continue their work to support change-makers and build a regenerative future, together.