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▶People have been trying to build this for longer than we've been alive.
People have always gone looking for better soil.
We are not the first. We are building the place where it can be kept.
You can be part of this from anywhere in the world. Give from where you are. And if you ever want to visit, or make the move to Mérida, we will walk with you.
A country that outlawed slavery
Mexico abolished slavery by decree about 34 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Enslaved people in Texas and Louisiana made the dangerous journey south to freedom.
The Mascogos, who stayed
Black Seminoles who fled slavery settled in Coahuila. Their descendants still live there and still celebrate Juneteenth.
Mound Bayou
Founded by Isaiah Montgomery and about a dozen pioneers, a self-governed Black town grew banks, schools, six churches and about 8,000 people by 1911. It is still a Black town today.
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica. It grew into a movement for Black pride and Black-owned business, from restaurants and shopping centers to the Black Star Line, a Black-owned shipping line meant to carry people to and from Africa.
The Great Migration
About 6 million Black Americans left the South. Historian Isabel Wilkerson calls it a "leaderless revolution" in which people freed themselves.
A district built, then destroyed
A 35-block district with two newspapers, a hospital, a hotel and a theater. In 1921 a mob destroyed it. We build with the same ambition, and with care for what we build.
New Communities
Black farmers pooled roughly 5,000 acres into a land trust, widely seen as the model for community land trusts. In 1983 the USDA took the land, and a court later found the agency discriminated. The lesson: own the ground, and protect it.
A debt we are not waiting on.
People build. It is the most natural thing we do: improve ourselves, then the ground we stand on. Black Americans did exactly that, over and over. Greenwood in Tulsa in 1921. Rosewood, Florida in 1923. Towns, businesses and farms, taken or destroyed in one form or another.
When what a people builds is taken, they start again from zero, with little to hand down.
We want to give our children what many families inherit without thinking about it: a place that is ours, held with care, built to outlast us.
About $16 for every $100.
Source: Federal Reserve, 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. Read the Federal Reserve note.
The gap was 27.7 points in 1994. It is 30.7 points today.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership, via FRED. White is non-Hispanic. Black and White series.
Give a child space and watch what happens.
When I got here four months ago, I was afraid to talk.A nine-year-old, spring camp closing ceremony, April 2026Mérida's Youth Explorers Spring Camp
"They've made something really special happen here in Mérida, something that reflects Black joy and community love all in one place."Mesha, Google review
"My kids will kill me if we're late to camp breakfast."Guest, Petersburg, VASpring Break Camp 2026
This is what becomes possible when a community has a place to stand.
He was new to our community when he came through Summer Camp 2026, and he talks to everyone like he's known them for years. He loves family dinners out and the swimming pool with the other kids.TBME Multicultural Summer Camp, 2026
Another one of our kids, through spring, summer and winter break camps and everything in between. He loves Backyard Boogie, mangos, nature, swimming, and Thursdays at La Plancha park. He has many moms and dads here.TBME Multicultural Summer Camp
He and his brother came through Summer Camp 2026 while his family considers Mérida for good. His favorite parts: breakfast, talking it all through with the counselors, making pizza, and ice cream.Visiting from Central Virginia, Summer Camp 2026
Two real Backyard Boogie schedules from 2025, printed and posted so our community always knew what was coming. Hover to see both nights.Backyard Boogie, Dream Event Center, 2025
When a child gets room to breathe, you can see it happen in real time. A home of our own means we get to watch it happen every single day, for every family who needs it.
What we build on, and why.
We build on healing-centered practice. It looks at what is strong in a person and a community, and it includes culture, faith and shared action.
A review of 70 studies covering over 25,000 young people found mentoring helps across outcomes. Effects were larger with male mentors and mentors from helping professions. We recruit both.
Financial independence protects women building a new life. Income and savings skills are part of real security.
Read more: healing-centered engagement, youth mentoring review, financial capability and survivors.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because of where we are.
Healing needs a different pace.
For many of us, the hardship was born in the United States, in the pace that never let the body rest.
Hard environments leave marks on the body.
Researchers who study "weathering" link years of stress and discrimination to faster wear on the body. A few things they've found:
- In CanadaTeenagers whose mothers lived through the 1998 ice storm showed differences in how their immune genes switch on.
- In the NetherlandsAdults whose mothers faced famine early in pregnancy showed differences in a growth gene decades later.
- In a US experimentFamilies who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods had less depression, and adults' diabetes roughly halved.
- In ChicagoTwo equally poor neighborhoods faced the same 1995 heat wave. Sociologist Eric Klinenberg traced the much lower deaths in one to busy streets and neighbors who looked out for each other.
- In South AfricaWild monkeys who joined a new group nearly all picked up its food habits.
Dr. Bianca Jones Marlin studies how stress passes between generations.Columbia's Zuckerman Institute
She points to the Dutch famine as the clearest human case, and has said we can look at Black and Native American history and tie food deprivation with stress. How far this reaches in people is still being worked out.
Read more: weathering, ice storm study, Dutch famine study, Moving to Opportunity, Chicago heat wave, vervet monkeys, Dr. Marlin.
Life slows down in Mérida.
People breathe differently here. They parent differently. Many arrive having already started the work of healing back home, and here that work finally has room to take hold, away from the pace that caused the strain.
That is our observation, not a promise. It is why we are building a place that can hold this work every day.
What the land and its people give
The Yucatán is a remarkable place where nature, history, and living Maya traditions come together. Its people carry generations of knowledge, resilience, hospitality, and a deep connection to their roots.
- A rich medicinal plant heritage
- Fresh, locally grown foods
- Traditional food culture and farming wisdom
- Generations of environmental knowledge
- A strong connection to ancestral knowledge
- Cenotes, beaches and forests
- More time outdoors
- Friendlier, more personal interactions
- A lower cost of living
- More affordable healthcare options
- A lifestyle centered on well-being
- More freedom to prioritize family and life experiences
We are guests here. Our work stands on the land and on the people who have kept it.
Four things, in plain words.
We feed the mind at the Social Table, where our community gathers to talk and encourage each other. We also run a Kitchen that physically feeds families facing food insecurity, every Monday.
Camps, classes and trade skills for children, teens and adults, from pottery to money skills. Your gift lowers the cost, and for some families, makes it possible at all.
Spiritual, physical and mental healing programs, mentors and counselors for every person in our community.
The community center, plus what it takes to run it: reliable transportation, a full kitchen, furniture and classroom setup, and resources like books and computers.
$45,000 for the van
Here is what a full week could look like, once the doors are open.
A week at our own center.
Every program we run now or ran before, under one roof, with room to grow.
- The KitchenCooks and packs the week's meals.
- Free Spanish classes
- Money skills and trades
- Counseling
- Mentoring and support circles
- Spanish classes
- Sunset meetupThe weekly gathering, indoors when it rains.
- Friday nights in Centro
- Jazz night and open mic
- MorningWellness community walk
- Birthdays
- Paint and sips
- Cuban night
- Business socials and conferences
- City bike ride
- Self Care Sunday
- Sunday Service
A sample week built from programs we run now or ran at the Dream Event Center. As the center grows, every day fills in more.
More social proof. Real flyers from Backyard Boogies, Spring Break camp and the Social Table. Tap or hover any one to see the full flyer.
What the first floor holds
- A full kitchen
- Classrooms
- Counseling rooms
- The Dream Event Center, our event hall for TBME Gather
- A welcome desk for Black expats arriving in Mérida
- Space for camps
- A free summer lunch for youth
- A museum of Black history and the African diaspora, including Afro-Mexican history and Pan-Africanism
- Resources for new Black expats
As the community grows
- A gym
- A pool
- Basketball and tennis courts
- A business incubator
This is the infrastructure every thriving community already has. We are building ours.
Pick the way that fits you.
Every way lands in the same place: Now for today, Always for the house.
The First Fruit Circle
Give monthly, starting at $10. First fruit is the first of the harvest, offered before the rest is counted. We gave ours first. The Circle is for the people who give theirs next.
Sponsor a seat or a week
Pick a real unit: one Kitchen week or one child at camp. You see exactly what your gift covers.
Give an item
The needs list works like a registry. Buy and drop off an item, or give toward that line.
Pay it forward
If this community caught you, you can catch the next family.
Plain answers, before you give.
- Your gift goes to Self Care Sundays, the US nonprofit our founders started in 2020. Americans are helping Americans build a life abroad.
- A Mexican nonprofit is in process. Until it is in place, gifts continue to go through the US nonprofit.
- Checkout is secure. Monthly gifts can be changed or stopped at any time.
- Now keeps the Kitchen and programs running this week. Always builds the home. You choose where your gift lands.
- Camp is funded by family fees. Your gift opens seats for children whose families cannot pay.
- Every story on this page is shared with permission. We do not name children or women from our protection programs.
For our kids. For their kids. Together.
The ground is ready and the people are here. Whether or not you ever come to Mérida, you can help change the world for Black Americans and Pan-Africans. Help us give them a home.
That's the whole story. The how, and what your gift goes toward right now, is on our Give page.