Community Activists Teaching Non-Violence

Cynthia Moe is a longtime resident and community activist in Tucker who originally founded The Steppingstone Art Studio where she taught and hired local artists to share the various disciplines with her students. Her art studio provided a supportive artistic community, in addition to providing a holiday gift shop to sell locally made crafts. Maintaining her school for five years, she then went to UGA to gain a MA in sculpture and painting. But then, her life took an interesting turn.   

Moe was divorced and had very definite ideas about what she wanted in a future relationship. During a workshop she attended in pursuit of growth and development, she met Mark Feinknopf and they became friends. An architect and transit specialist hired by MARTA, Feinknopf was also a passionate community activist. Serving on 25 different non-profit boards, he had consulted on numerous community projects dedicated to creating conscious urban communities. He had come to Atlanta after losing his wife to cancer, leaving behind a strong, supportive community of family and friends and was seeking to fill the void he had come to rely upon.

Sharing mutual community goals and both wanting to fill a need for a loving connection, Moe and Feinknopf came together to create what they felt was a growing, caring relationship. They found themselves confronting some ongoing issues, however, so they started seeking more advanced communication tools. 

They attended a number of workshops until discovering Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC) method, which they feel has provided them the overall answers and techniques they were seeking. The Rosenberg method produces a non-threatening way to communicate feelings and related needs without either party feeling attacked or accused, thus creating more harmonious, compassionate relationships in every facet of life. They were so impressed with their own results that they began sponsoring Rosenberg at the Carter Center and other locations in the Southeast, eventually conducting their own NVC workshops.        

Utilizing the umbrella of Sacred Space, created early in their relationship, the couple continues to provide individual, corporate and community consulting, strategic planning and urban design by integrating the NVC-based methods of assisting all participants in being equally valued, thus facilitating efficient, effective decision making, in addition to resolving conflicts and differences.

They have applied their skills and conducted workshops for a number of large corporations, civic and faith groups, hospitals and universities including the Carter Center Education Program, Emory University Violence Prevention Program, DeKalb County Domestic Violence Task Force, Agnes Scott College, the Tucker Civic Association, Main Street Tucker Alliance and many other prominent organizations in Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio and internationally.

Living Gandhi’s example of being the change they want to see in the world, they are now further applying their passion for more conscious and compassionate communication by beginning a Neighbor2Neighbor organization in their own residential area to promote more connection and support among neighbors. From facilitating casual morning coffee gatherings to workshops and tutoring, they continue to share the methods they have learned hoping to improve and enhance the quality of their own lives and the lives of those they touch. They’re hoping other neighborhoods will follow their model.

For information on their Tucker community interests, contact: info@sacredspaceinc.com