St. Augustine, Florida | Spring 2025
Two months before Belonging, Inc. officially became a nonprofit organization, members of The Channel United Methodist Church gathered at St. Augustine's historic marketplace—a place where, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,100 African people were enslaved and trafficked. Standing together in this place of historic injustice, this diverse community offers a glimpse of the future we believe God intends: communities where every person belongs.

Belonging did not begin with us.

Long before Belonging, Inc. became a nonprofit organization in May 2025, belonging was already woven into God's vision for humanity. We believe the story of belonging began in the heart of the Divine and continues wherever people choose relationship over division, courage over fear, and hope over despair.

Our organization is simply one chapter in that much larger story.

For us, that chapter began in 2018.

Rev. Laverne March and Rev. David Williamson met while serving separate congregations in St. Augustine, Florida. At the time, the city was wrestling publicly with the future of Confederate memorials in its historic Plaza. As pastors, David and Laverne participated in public demonstrations and spoke before the City Commission, believing that confronting history honestly is an essential part of justice.

But they also recognized something else.

Public protest is necessary, yet lasting change requires something more.

Communities also need places where people can sit together, listen deeply, ask difficult questions, and learn one another's stories. Without those spaces, disagreement too easily becomes division, and division becomes isolation.

Out of that conviction, Community Conversation was born.

What began as a local dialogue became a weekly gathering where people from different racial, cultural, political, and faith backgrounds committed themselves to learning together. Week after week, participants discovered that belonging is not achieved by pretending differences don't exist. Instead, belonging grows when our differences are recognized, understood, appreciated, and used as strengths for the common good.

Over the next seven years, David and Laverne continued to learn alongside this growing community. Through mentoring with VISIONS, Inc., practical experience, and countless conversations, they developed the skills to facilitate transformational learning and accompany organizations seeking to become communities of belonging.

Eventually it became clear that this work had grown beyond two local pastors.

It needed a home.

In May 2025, Belonging, Inc. was incorporated as a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with Rev. Laverne March and Rev. David Williamson serving as Co-Executive Directors. They were joined by a founding Board of Directors: Vicki Pepper (Chair), Jennifer Smalls (Secretary), Brian Pepper (Treasurer), and Rev. Dr. Simon Osunlana.

Today, Belonging, Inc. equips churches, nonprofits, businesses, schools, and communities through leadership development, coaching, community dialogue, pilgrimages, and educational experiences that help people cultivate cultures of authentic belonging.

The photograph at the top of this page reminds us why this work matters.

Taken at the historic marketplace in St. Augustine—a place where human beings were once bought and sold—it depicts a diverse community gathered not in denial of history, but in honest relationship with one another. It is a picture of hope without forgetting truth. It is a picture of healing without ignoring injustice.

For us, it is also a picture of belonging.

Our story is still being written.

Every congregation that chooses courageous hospitality, every organization that learns to value difference, every leader who creates space for honest dialogue, and every person who becomes a bridge-builder adds another chapter.

We invite you to become part of the story.