about us.
Our purpose
Reunion a peacebuilding organization, focused on restoring relationships to land, community, and home. We are braiding together mutual care between NYC and the Western Catskills to help shape a more interdependent future.
Our method is grounded in holistic tools of fostering peace that center circle work, community empowerment, conflict resolution, and legal aid.
We are helping individuals and communities:
Fight housing insecurity and injustice
Increase access to the outdoors and combat racial disparities in natural spaces
Work in solidarity and support of Indigenous-led environmental initiatives
Heal and Grow (on the personal, intergenerational, and ancestral level)
Shatter the illusory silos containing the rural-urban divide
Put politics and screens aside so we can learn, celebrate, and collaborate as one human family
background
At Reunion, we believe that home is not just a place, it is a feeling of peace that derives from the shelter and sanctuary that all living things need to thrive. We believe this peaceful ‘sense of home’ arises out of a constellation of factors which include stable housing, healthy natural ecosystems, and joyful communities where freedom and kindness are interdependent.
In the Western Catskills region of New York State, these themes reach very far back: 380 million years ago, the land beneath our feet was home to the Wattieza tree, the world’s first tree to grow tall towards the sun, creating both the shaded shelter and sanctuary for life on Earth to prosper.
Today, we are inspired by the caretaking and revolutionary Wattieza tree, and believe the Western Catskills must continue to serve as a polestar to restore and renew a stable sense of home and peace for those who need it most, and to open new pathways for abundance both for those living in the region and for those living in nature-deprived parts of New York State.
what does peacebuilding have to do with it?
Peacebuilding is a term often used to address the root causes of violent conflict by unpacking the historical and ongoing sources of tension or divisiveness.
New York State is not an active conflict zone, but many us live lives that contain violence and harm that is both systemic and interpersonal. For some, housing insecurity and unavailability, income instability, lack of access to nature, and the marginalization of whole communities based in structural racism or classism can make life in this heavily populated, “Empire” state feel powerless.
Many others who are not as directly impacted feel as if they are cast out to sea in a culture they cannot control: atomization, corporate greed and privatization, plutocracy and neo-feudalism, the prison industrial complex, hungry data centers that will accelerate a climate crisis and destroy critical land habitats and waters, technological addiction, divisive politics, and an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, leaves them feeling hopeless.
Now more than ever, with more people feeling abandoned by governance structures they had been raised to believe in, support and rely on, we need communitarian models of addressing and healing harm, wrongdoing, and divisiveness in the ways that it shows up for us in our corner of the world.
Reunion is a peacebuilding organization because we are co-creating a communitarian resistance to inequality, systemic harms, and conflict.
We believe it is essential to reflect, model and instill peace as a principle onto itself because it is restorative and preventative. Building the skills and awareness surrounding mutual aid, personal growth and wellness, and harmony and equanimity between differing communities, as well as humans and the natural world allow us to intentionally cultivate and protect the things we hold as sacred: a sense of belonging, a sense of home, a sense of safety, and the heart-opening realization that we are all in this together.
who do we support?
Reunion is focused around uplifting and supporting the needs of two distinct and typically siloed communities, and propelling the bountiful ways in which they can collaborate:
Those living in nature-deprived and divested parts of New York City, with particular emphasis on individuals and families that are justice-impacted.
Those experiencing poverty in the Western Catskills, a highly rural part of New York State, where affordable housing and social services are challenging to access.
In each, the other can find tools and resources that can help fill in critical gaps and create new pathways for growth.
Our programs
Are centered around three core initiatives that together, help restore a sense of home as both shelter and sancturary.
Community Empowerment & Housing Justice
Building a culture of mutual aid and housing justice initiatives that respond to pressing community issues that disproportionately affect people experiencing housing insecurity in the Western Catskills region. Legal advice and counsel, restorative practices and legal empowerment techniques will be facilitated by local community members and supported by practitioners based in NYC.
Indigenous Solidarity & Environmental Justice
Through talking circle series, direct action campaigns, and advocacy efforts, Reunion is opening pathways for ancestral healing and co-creation, grounded in Mother Earth’s timeless lessons and anchored in Indigenous sovereignty.
Heartfire Gatherings—Coming Summer 2027
Nature-immersion trips that foster transformational healing and learning for NYC-based participants and who are struggling with the effects of trauma, injustice, and the violence perpetuated by the carceral system. Participants and mentors will travel to the Western Catskills for a long weekend, where they will be greeted and supported by local volunteers who will help facilitate their adventure.
OUR VALUES
Sacred Unity
Bearing Witness
gathering + Homecoming
Abolition
remembrance
our priorities
we are committed to:
Increasing community unity, action, and mutual aid through restorative practices like talking circles and civic dialogues that support the needs of at-risk community members,
Ensuring mental, emotional, and spiritual equity through access to nature for Black and brown people based in New York City,
Creating transformational healing spaces in nature for those who are destabilized by the impacts of poverty, trauma, or injustice,
Providing direct advocacy and legal support to individuals in the Western Catskills experiencing housing instability or injustice,
Promoting the wellbeing and prosperity of natural ecosystems in the Western Catskills in alignment and solidarity with Indigenous led-initiatives,
Opening pathways for collaboration and co-creation between typically siloed rural and urban-based New York communities.
The ancient Wattieza tree—the tree that created the first forests of the world (right here in Western Catskills!) is our inspiration for caretaking and leadership to support stronger and more inclusive communities.
Reunion is guided by the principle of seasonality: the idea that our lives are conditioned by the offerings of the seasons, and we work most effectively when we work with, rather than against, nature’s cycles. Accordingly, our programmatic priorities will flow according to seasonal needs and opportunities.
Our team
We are a growing collective of restorative practitioners, community leaders, lawyers, and friends committed to building peace and celebrating our interdependence. Reunion is being developed as a 501(c)(3) organization, with charitable deduction status to be finalized in 2026.
