Salty Sister Sanctuary
A place for women to go to find respite from everyday stresses, fellowship, and to share empowering life skills.
What it's all about ...
Many years ago, there was a facility in Mississippi called Camp Sister Spirit Folk School. They offered a facility for camping, spirit festivals, health fairs, etc but shut down shortly after Katrina.
We are in the process of doing something similar but in Alabama. Salty Sister Sanctuary.
My vision is to eventually have a place where women can go to get away from every day stressors. For now, it is online only, but hopefully soon, it will become a local reality with primitive camping at first, including a fire circle, hopefully access to water, maybe a garden, but with classes like self defense, budgeting, fiscal responsibility and basic maintenance and repair. You know the things you kinda need to have a bit of a grasp on if you are going to survive on your own. My focus group will be women from the ages of 18+ who either do not want to get married, have been married and divorced, or have been married and widowed and now find themselves needing to learn new skills. Or women who are married and just want to get away for a weekend.
Sanctuary
There are times in life where everyone needs a safe place to be themself, to let loose and be at peace. It may be a night or a weekend, or a month... who knows? Temporary or long term, having that special place to recharge, focus, and come back to yourself is important.
This is more about soul healing, and less about religion. This Sanctuary will be open to all faiths and respect all religions.
Fellowship
Women need women. Long ago, we lived in a society where the elder women were there for the younger women to bounce ideas off of, to listen to, to learn from, and just to support each other. Today's society just does not have that connectedness or resource in the same capacity.
Aunts, Grandmothers, Neighbors, Friends or Family ... in the end, we are all sisters!
Community Connections
Women supporting women. Whenever there is an opportunity to network with local women business owners and offer them a place to share their skills, services, products in a way that will benefit members and the community at large, we want to make sure they have a safe place to do so.
Primitive Camping
To start off, the facility will offer a limited number of spaces for primitive camping (tents and hammocks). Eventually this will be broadened to include bunk houses, cabins, tiny houses, and RV hook ups. But we believe in baby steps to get started.
Social Networking
Whether it is online or around a picnic table, we have joked about some of the frivolous happenings that could be associated with Salty Sisters. Margarita Monday, Tequila Tuesday, Wine Wednesdays, Thirsty Thursdays ... who knows what we will come up with in the end. But some times you just need to give yourself permission to chill and having a community of women to chill with, in a safe place is important to our mission.
Classes
So many life skills seem to be left out of the general education and are not missed until after it is realized they were needed.
Self Defense
Situational Awareness
Hand to Hand
With Guns
Gun Safety
Target Practice
Financial
Budgeting 101
Taxes
How to Save when you have little income
How to manage household finances after someone else has been managing them.
Basic Maintenance
Basic home maintenance
Basic auto maintenance
Plan of Action
I am a big proponent of making big things happen through many tiny baby steps. I also believe in order to get started you have to have a vision of where you want to be sooner, later, and eventually. Getting to any of those goals may shift over time. Those goals may even change entirely by the time you get there, but that's ok. Here are some of my goals for now.