Paragon Cooperative, et. al., Co.

Paragon Cooperative is a rural grassroots BIPOC and LGBTQ+ led farming cooperative based in Plains, GA. Our mission is to rehabilitate land and property to create safe live-work-play spaces where members can teach and train in literacy, consent, and sustainability. We’re working to provide an anti-colonial model of shared land ownership, creating spaces where BIPOC non-traditional people can be fluid and authentically connect across the spectrum of their lives, from town to country.

We are guided by principles of resilience, reclamation, and reciprocity as we work to create sustainable green energy live-work housing for our communities in Georgia. We steward our land collectively, plan to use regenerative practices, and we see ourselves as connected to the larger movement toward increased Black & Queer farming, food justice, and land sovereignty, especially safe spaces in an area impacted by structural discrimination.

Our cooperative model emphasizes sustainable community building and living-wage work through financial empowerment, workforce development, and training. We offer essential resources and are interested in a multi-year partnership with the Liz Blake Giving Fund, leveraging our Southeast US location to create a land-based sanctuary for BIPOC LGBTQ+ families, visionaries, advocates, collectives, and coalitions seeking a collaborative space that supports justice in food, housing, and energy.

Our three-year plan includes key accomplishments such as completing environmental testing, architectural planning, land re-parceling, structural safety checks, a working kitchen, accessible restroom, a pollinator garden, and a functional auditorium for community events. We aim to establish ourselves as a known and reliable space for movement-building and systemic change. Our second generation has ownership and their own operating agreement to demonstrate our alignment to the Liz Blake mission.