Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative (POTS) is a worker-owned cooperative for black women and mothers founded in 2016 in Oakland, CA. Their mission is to create intentional, sustainable, and inclusive communities that foster connection, empowerment, and resilience. Their planned village will be centered on principles of justice, equity, and cooperation with one section for women and children, along with beloved partners or grandparents. Another will be for elderly and disabled individuals, giving members ways to meet their needs through support from the rest who will work 15 hours to 35 hours (as able) a week. A third part of the village will serve as a central retreat space with a farm that includes an organic vegetable garden, goats, chickens, and bees. Through sustainable practices and conscious living, POTS strives to create a model for ethical and regenerative living that promotes harmony with nature and enhances the well-being of all community members.
Parable of the Sower’s Juneteenth Reparation Bus Tour in July 2024 brought community members together for a day of celebration, skill-building and strategies for winning reparations, and discussion of the critical role of cooperatives in generating and protecting BIPOC community wealth. Parable of the Sower
The Parable of the Sower Cooperative was born out of the Free Marissa Now Movement wherein 37,000 members worked to free Marissa Alexander from a 60 year Stand Your Ground imprisonment in Jacksonville, Florida. Using this momentum Aleta Alston-Touré and other members founded POTS to create a housing model for Black women organizers and their families, providing community organizing, housing, and health services. They follow the Rochdale Madison Principles as they build their first community for women and children. They plan to build three more communities by 2035, focusing on feminist and sustainable economics and political education. POTS shares its lessons with other intentional communities around the world, having presented at panels for the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC), and supports the Black Liberation Movement, Black Lives Matter, the Womanist movement, Operation Ghetto Storm, and Spirit of Mandela, focusing on collective, strategic solutions for social change.
Parable of the Sower offers products such as their “Water Flows Spring Water,” services such as “Black Trauma Anonymous” groups, and trainings such as Community Organizing and Policy Consulting