Walk into Community Grounds on a weekday morning, and you’ll notice a boisterous group of 4-10 people gathered at a table. Step closer, and you’ll overhear them debating social issues, football, and ideas to solve the world’s problems. Take another step closer, and you may just be vigorously invited to sit down and join them.
The Morning Crew, as this dedicated group is called, meets Monday – Friday mornings, typically just before 9 a.m. so they can enjoy Community Grounds’ daily early bird discount. The crew began nearly 13 years ago, when Community Grounds was just a few years old. Rick, the self-proclaimed mayor of the group, claims to run it as a tight ship of focused discussion. The truth is looser, warmer, and fuzzier.
“I love to laugh. I come because I know I’ll laugh,” confides Luz, who has been a member of the group for the past six years. When she’s not at the gatherings, you can find Luz raising her two teenage granddaughters. At the Morning Crew meetings, she feels a sense of joy and connection that carries her through the daily grind.
Tony, a younger member of the group, echoes the idea that the group has given him a sense of social connection – both to the group and to South Atlanta. “They treat us well here, and we treat this place, and everyone who comes in, with kindness in return,” he says, “Rick even waters the plants here.” The conversations are one of his favorite ways to check in on his friends.
These comments, and the Morning Crew itself, show how a “third space” can foster a deeper sense of belonging and connectedness. Third spaces, or places outside of work and home where people can informally gather, have been shown to increase overall quality of life, wellbeing, and mental health in neighborhoods. Community Grounds was built to create one of these third spaces in South Atlanta and drive economic vitality at the same time.
Rick has felt the benefits of having this third space personally, both on a social and a physical level. He remembers that when he first came to Community Grounds, he didn’t have any friends. Harry, another member of the Morning Crew, walked up and invited Rick to sit at a table with him.
“So I kept coming back here, sitting at that table. I enjoyed the friendship that we developed. And this crew really helped me, including through some very hard times. My mother died from Alzheimer’s and I’m in an Alzheimer’s study. Socializing is one big way to ward off Alzheimer’s. So that’s another reason why I’m here.”
Above all, he sees the group as a way of caring for others and valuing the unique gifts of every individual.
He says, “We get along really well. We have lots of different opinions and don’t always agree, but we get along. We all have different tools in our toolbox, and that’s good. We all come here to use the different tools we have. And we all want to help other people with those tools.”
We are grateful for the Morning Crew and the way they show all of us what it means to be a good neighbor, and what it looks like to breathe life into third spaces.
