After living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for the past 14 years, I’ve experienced firsthand how Christians can live in close proximity and not know one another. I’ve always seen such potential for community and yet it has never coalesced into something tangible. FIMBY is my attempt to help Christians find the family in their backyard, and live into their shared values together.

I’m Stephen Rathjen, a technology consultant with 14+ years of experience living in solidarity with my Downtown Eastside neighbors.

My work with 75+ nonprofits has shown me how technology can advance social justice when shaped by community needs. As a gay and affirming Christian serving on the board of Strathcona Vineyard, I’m deeply committed to bridging divides within the Christian community around issues like sexuality, race, and economic justice. FIMBY represents my conviction that God’s love, expressed through genuine relationships and practical action, can transform both individual lives and systemic inequalities.

FIMBY is an initiative of Strathcona Vineyard, a missional church that has been working in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside since 2005. We’re committed to living out Jesus’s words and works in practical ways that address both immediate needs and underlying injustices.

1. Spiritual Growth Through Action: FIMBY integrates spiritual disciplines (Hospitality, Service, Stewardship, Fellowship, Simplicity, Prayer, Celebration, and Witness) into daily life, helping communities grow spiritually through practical acts of justice and love.
2. Authentic Local Connections: Unlike conventional social media, FIMBY facilitates real-world relationships that cross social, economic, and denominational boundaries.
3. Systemic Change Through Relationship: Regular interactions and resource sharing help members recognize and address both personal biases and systemic inequities.
4. Mutual Aid Infrastructure: By making needs and resources visible, FIMBY creates a culture of reciprocal care that challenges individualistic consumer culture.
5. Environmental Justice: Our sharing economy model directly addresses climate change by reducing consumption and waste, particularly important given climate change’s disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.
6. Digital Justice: FIMBY prioritizes accessibility, ensuring that technology barriers don’t prevent participation in community life.
7. Democratic Ownership: Unlike corporate platforms, FIMBY is community-owned and governed, ensuring it serves community needs rather than profit motives.

• Relationship Catalyst: FIMBY jumpstarts neighborhood connections through user-friendly technology that leads to real-world relationships.
• Simplified Mutual Aid: Our platform streamlines resource sharing and need-meeting, making it easy for everyone to participate in the local sharing economy.
• Collective Action: FIMBY helps neighborhoods identify and address shared challenges, moving from individual charity to collective problem-solving.
• Impact Tracking: The platform helps communities measure their collective impact on issues like climate change, social isolation, and economic inequality.

1. Community Ownership: Unlike Facebook Marketplace or NextDoor, FIMBY is owned and governed by its users, ensuring it serves community needs rather than corporate profits.
2. Values-Aligned Funding: Instead of advertising, FIMBY uses a cooperative funding model where users and supporters collectively maintain the platform.
3. Biblical Foundation: FIMBY draws inspiration from Acts 2 & 6, where the early church created systems for equitable resource distribution—a model of practical justice we seek to embody today.
4. Inclusive Access: FIMBY provides alternatives for those who can’t or choose not to use conventional social media, ensuring no one is excluded from community life.

We’re currently piloting in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside/Strathcona neighborhood (V6A and surrounding areas), with plans to expand to other neighborhoods and cities across Canada and the US as we learn and grow.

FIMBY is a trust-based network requiring either residence in the defined geographic area and an invitation from an existing member, or affiliation with a local church or charity. This structure helps maintain the safety and integrity needed for genuine vulnerability and resource sharing.

Importantly, current users can advocate for and surface needs/resources on behalf of non-members, ensuring FIMBY benefits the whole community, including those facing technical or other barriers to direct participation.

Join us in reimagining what Christian community can look like when we combine digital tools with embodied solidarity. Whether through membership, prayer, spreading the word, or financial support, there are many ways to help FIMBY grow its impact.

We’re carefully expanding our network and welcome conversations with communities interested in implementing FIMBY’s model of practical, justice-oriented Christian neighbor-love.