A Ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Peace
Crown Point Ecology Center is a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Peace — sponsored by them, rooted in their charism, and governed in part by their representatives. It is also its own independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit: separately incorporated since 2010, with its own board, staff, and programs open to everyone regardless of faith.
An 800-year-old idea, applied to 115 acres.
The Dominican Sisters of Peace trace their spiritual lineage to St. Dominic and the Order of Preachers, founded in 1216 — an order built around a simple charge: to praise, to bless, to preach. For most of that history, "preaching" meant classrooms, pulpits, and hospital wards. Crown Point represents something newer: caring for land, teaching people to farm organically, and feeding food-insecure neighbors is also a form of preaching — one done with soil instead of words.
That shift has a name in the modern Catholic Church: integral ecology, the framework Pope Francis laid out in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si' — its central claim is that care for the environment and care for the poor are not two separate causes but one. Crown Point's Core Values are a direct, practical expression of that idea.
The short version.
The Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron acquired this land in 1967, blessed it as an ecology center in 1989, and joined the Dominican Sisters of Peace in 2009. Crown Point incorporated as its own independent nonprofit the following year. The full story — with the people, the dates, and the details — lives on Our Story & History →
Independent, by design.
Crown Point is governed by its own twelve-member Board of Directors, staffed by its own team, and funded through its own donors, grants, and earned revenue — not through the Dominican Sisters of Peace's operating budget. Two of those twelve seats are reserved by charter for DSOP representatives — Mark Butler and Claire Crane currently hold them. The other ten are elected independently, giving Crown Point's own board a clear governing majority.
Crown Point is the only one of the Dominican Sisters of Peace's ecological ministries structured as its own independent 501(c)(3) — its own board, its own staff, its own governance. Its farm, education, and camp programs are open to the public regardless of religious belief, with no religious requirement to volunteer, work, or participate.
“To demonstrate the practical applications of ecology and to connect spirituality, social justice and environmental protection.”Crown Point's Mission — and the Dominican charism, in one sentence
An independent nonprofit. A shared mission.
Crown Point stands on its own — and stands for something bigger than itself.