Two Gatewood Elementary parents are turning a shared dream into a physical address in West Seattle. Megan Fisher and Krystal Praast have spent months building Ember Place, a new nonprofit community space offering everything from weekly dinners and live music to yoga, grief support and coworking, and it opens to the public next Tuesday.
Ember Place occupies the lower floor of West Seattle Church of the Nazarene at 4201 SW Juneau Street, according to West Seattle Blog. The organization is careful to note it isn't affiliated with the congregation whose building it rents. Per its own website, Ember Place describes itself plainly: “Ember Place is a non-religious organization. We rent space from a church.”
That independence matters to the founders, who are building a community space for neighbors. The site lists an expansive menu of offerings: community dinners paired with live music, circles for adults, kids and teens, grief support and group therapy, children's and family programming, and a coworking area. Some offerings are accessible through sliding-scale memberships or one-time drop-in visits, while playcare, mini camps and after-school programs are priced separately.
Who's Behind the New Space
Fisher brings clinical training to the project. The site notes she is a licensed mental health counselor in Washington State, with her bio describing her credentials as “Megan Fisher, MA, LMHC, co-founder of Ember Place is a licensed mental health counselor in Washington State.” Praast's background runs through the workplace world instead, with more than 15 years in human resources, people operations and organizational development, plus experience facilitating community circles.
Praast told West Seattle Blog that Ember Place is meant to be “a welcoming place for people of all ages to share meals, develop friendships, find support, and build everyday connection.” She also summarized the scope of what's on offer, saying the space includes “dinners, live music, circles, wellness activities, therapy, coworking, and family programming,” according to the outlet. Underlying all of it, she said, is a simple belief she and Fisher share: that people belong to each other.
What's Happening at the Grand Opening
The public celebration is set for October 27 from 5 to 8 p.m., per West Seattle Blog's reporting. Attendees don't need to be members to come through the door. Ember Place's own event page confirms the format, noting the gathering will include “food, live music, and a family-friendly scavenger hunt,” and adds plainly, “You don't need to be a member to join us.”
Beyond the food and games, the evening doubles as an introduction to how Ember Place actually works. Neighbors will get a chance to meet the team running the space and ask about memberships and volunteer opportunities, West Seattle Blog reports. The organization is also sweetening early sign-ups: its website states that the first 50 members will receive five buddy passes and three family passes, a push to get the space filled with regulars from the start.
A Broader Pattern of Community-First Hubs
Ember Place's blend of coworking and connection echoes a model that's popped up elsewhere in Seattle recently. The SWELL, a hub for women entrepreneurs based at SURF Incubator in downtown Seattle, describes itself in similar terms, as “a community that happens to have a co-working space,” according to GeekWire. That space was founded by Sally Revell after a 25-year marketing career at companies including Google, Amazon Web Services, Philips and Intuit, GeekWire reported, and within less than 10 weeks of opening had already signed up 53 members paying $200 a month for access through a 75-member cap.
Ember Place isn't chasing that same membership model or price point, but the underlying instinct, that people are hungry for structured spaces built around relationship rather than just work or worship, runs through both projects. On its website, Ember Place's team describes itself as united by a commitment to fostering belonging, wellbeing and meaningful human connection, with a stated goal of creating spaces where people feel seen, supported and connected. The site also notes the space draws on the Internal Family Systems framework as part of its approach to community and support programming.
For now, the immediate test is simpler: whether West Seattle residents show up on a Tuesday evening for dinner, music and a scavenger hunt inside a church basement that its founders insist is anything but a religious space. Ember Place's site lists a monthly circle specifically for women and non-binary participants focused on community and relationship repair, one piece of a calendar the founders hope will keep neighbors coming back long after the opening night crowd goes home.
