The Land Belongs to Everyone — And So Does Access to It
This isn't a policy page. It's where Crown Point says plainly who this land was taken from, and who we're committed to making sure it serves now.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Crown Point Ecology Center believes the land belongs to everyone — and so does access to it.
Farm spaces, ecological education, and the sustainable food movement have too often excluded the very communities who stand to benefit most. We are committed to changing that. Crown Point actively works to ensure that our programs, partnerships, staff, volunteer base, and leadership reflect the full diversity of the people we serve.
We include and affirm individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+, people across the gender spectrum, Black and Indigenous people, people of color, neurodivergent individuals, and people with disabilities.
This is not a footnote to our mission. It is our mission. Our core value of Justice calls us to confront inequity wherever it lives, including within ourselves, and to keep growing.
Where This Shows Up in Practice
A commitment means little without something to point to. Here's where Crown Point's Justice value is already at work on this land, not just in this statement.
Vulnerable Voices
More than 50 refugee families farm 5 of Crown Point's own certified organic acres — not a donated harvest, but land and access given directly.
All Abilities Fall Festival
A named, standing commitment to accessible programming, not a one-time accommodation.
Community Garden Plots
Priced so cost isn't the barrier to growing your own food on this land, regardless of experience or background.
Land Acknowledgement
Crown Point Ecology Center sits on the ancestral lands of the Seneca, Cayuga, Lenni Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot (Wendat), Ottawa (Odawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa), Miami, and Potawatomi peoples.
These are nations who were stewards of this land long before European settlement. Before them, ancient earthwork-building cultures occupied and cultivated this landscape for more than two thousand years. These nations did not simply pass through this land — they sustained it.
In 1805, the Treaty of Fort Industry extinguished Indigenous title to this region, and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 completed the forced displacement of peoples who had called northeastern Ohio home for generations.
To learn more about Indigenous peoples in our region, we encourage you to visit the Portage Path Collaborative at the Summit County Historical Society.
A statement is a beginning, not a conclusion.
See how this commitment shows up across Crown Point's programs and partnerships.