Who we are

The Neighborhood Flamekeepers are a community of neighbors who serve their neighborhoods through presence, accompaniment, and ritual, while cultivating their skills of human connection and supporting each other.

What Flamekeepers have in common

• We find ourselves yearning to better support others through life’s challenges.

• We’ve volunteered to serve our community through human connection (e.g. as peer counselors, community mediators, hospice volunteers, companions to the elderly, teen mentors).

• Whether or not it’s our primary career, we’ve felt a calling to grow our skills of human connection (e.g. we’ve seriously considered being a counselor or life coach at some point).

• We care deeply about being involved in our neighborhood.

Why Neighborhood Flamekeepers come together

Flamekeepers seek to …

• Serve together. We seek opportunities to serve our neighbors through human connection and emotional support, by “creating space to honor the human journey” through the SF Contemplarium.

• Grow and learn. We strive to develop our skills to grow as human beings in all parts of our lives.

• Find belonging and support. We seek likehearted individuals to share in growth, service, and mutual support.

• Take part in an important cause. We are doing our part to address our society’s “crisis of connection” at a level we can make meaningful, tangible impact: our neighborhoods.

We are a diverse community of neighbors bridging across differences, but we share a belief in the inherent and equal dignity of every person, and seek to embody that conviction through our local, interpersonal practice of honoring our human journey among neighbors.

What we do

💛  Neighborhood Offerings

Neighborhood Flamekeepers power the SF Contemplarium’s neighborhood offerings with their intention and care. These will be co-created with SF Contemplarium staff and may include:

• 🗓 Events – e.g. Reflection Jams, Seasonal Ingatherings, Wisdom Walks

• 🕯 Installations – e.g. Reflection Stand Park Pop-ups, Physical Storefronts

• 🪑 Support – e.g. House visits, support groups, mediation service

We aren’t starting from scratch — these build on our experiments over the SF Contemplarium’s first year.

🧰  Flamekeeping Skills

Through ongoing workshops, reflection, and coaching, Neighborhood Flamekeepers continuously work on Flamekeeping skills to honor the human journey through:

• 🤲  Presence – Offering nonjudgmental and compassionate attention

• 🪔  Ritual – Using symbolic words or actions to honor an experience’s significance

• 🧭  Accompaniment – Offering shoulder-to-shoulder navigation through an experience

🌱  Mutual support

Neighborhood Flamekeepers support each other through:

• 🫂 Deepening & Care  – e.g. Listening Circles and Journey Groups

• 🎉 Social Connection – e.g. potlucks, book clubs, and movie nights

• 🏛️ Shared Leadership – Deliberative governance, task forces, and financial support

Our Values

We continuously revisit and recommit to our community values, with these as a starting point:

As a community of …

1. Learning, we seek growth and curiosity in our experiences and each other.

2. Support, we show care and compassion through our words and actions.

3. Service, we earn the privilege to serve others through conscientious and sincere service.

4. Openness, we show up with truth and integrity even when it isn’t easy.

5. Shared Leadership, we each contribute to our shared purpose.

6. Right Relationship, we respect each others’ dignity as moral equals.

Joining a cohort

Because building a high-trust community is vital to our purpose, all Neighborhood Flamekeepers begin their journey by joining a cohort of 8-15 neighbors. This cohort is required to attend a Weekend Cohort Immersive and co-create the Fall Ingathering:

Weekend Cohort Immersive

(Fall 2025 Founding Cohort Dates: November 1–2)

The Cohort Immersive is a weekend of hands-on, interactive exercises to build trust, practice skills, and familiarize with the SF Contemplarium’s approach to Flamekeeping. The idea is to create a “lab” where we can practice, try things on for size, and learn and discover together. In the Immersive, we cover:

• Part 1: 📖 Stories of purpose and practicing presence

• Part 2: 🕯️ Honoring existential concerns through ritual

• Part 3: 🌱 Offering structures to grow into our values

• Part 4: 🔥 Flamekeeping the neighborhood together

The Cohort Immersive sessions are led by Seanan Fong, SF Contemplarium’s Founding Director, and designed with input from expert practitioner partners. But most importantly, they create the intentional structure to draw on the wisdom and experience you and cohortmates already have.

Seasonal Ingathering

(Fall 2025 Founding Cohort Date: November 16)

In the weeks following the Immersive, the Cohort works together to lead a Seasonal Ingathering for the neighborhood, in which the local public is invited to mark the turn of the season together. The Cohort also narrows down on a specific, achievable joint project for the coming season (3 months).

Fall 2025 Founding Cohort Details

We are now forming our Fall 2025 Founding Cohort, a multigenerational group from diverse backgrounds who will pioneer our work together. This group will be creative and willing to assume a shared leadership role at the beginning of this exciting program. Apply now →

Geographic Focus

To concentrate our efforts, this Founding Cohort will focus on the Hayes-Duboce area (Hayes Valley, Lower Haight, Duboce Triangle, Alamo Square) – Flamekeepers can come from anywhere in San Francisco, they just have to be willing to focus their energy on Hayes-Duboce.

Cohort Dates

• 2-Day Cohort Immersive: Full-day Saturday and Sunday, November 1–2 (required)

• Ingathering Prep & Workshop: Sunday, November 9 (recommended)

• Fall Ingathering: Sunday, November 16 (required)

Sustainability

We have fortunately secured some grant funding (yay!) to help launch the Neighborhood Flamekeepers program, so that will help cover much of the cost of our Founding Cohort. But for this community to be sustainable and civically-aligned, we need shared financial leadership to keep our purpose alive long-term. We ask for every Neighborhood Flamekeeper to contribute to the cost of making a community of mutual support possible:

• Initial Cohort Immersive: $150* (Founding Cohort)

  Your contribution will defray a small part of the venue and facilitator costs. Grant funding will cover the remainder of the venue and facilitator costs, administration costs, supplies, and coffee/snacks.

• Flamekeeper Community Dues: $20/mo* (or $60/season) (Founding Cohort)

  Your contribution will sustain Flamekeeper-only events to enable mutual support as a community: regular meeting places, snacks, hosting materials, and a shared budget for regular learning and deepening opportunities.

*Financial support is available through the Flamekeeper Fund, which you can request at registration after acceptance into a cohort. This financial support is to help ensure that all Neighborhood Flamekeepers have the opportunity to participate in our full range of activities.