Sanctuary 44 · Shafer, Minnesota · St. Croix River Valley

A place to just be. Discover your roots. Unearth your truth.

A regenerative farm in Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley, creating space for Black women to rest, reclaim, connect, and belong.

Discover Sanctuary 44 Join The Circle
Why Black Women

Sanctuary 44 was created in response to a simple truth.

Black women often carry extraordinary responsibility while having too few spaces intentionally designed for their restoration.

Here, your well-being is not an afterthought. It is the reason this place exists.

Every experience is thoughtfully curated to create space for stillness, connection, renewal, and joy.

This is not about excluding anyone.
It is about intentionally creating a space where Black women can simply be.

Our Promise

To create the conditions for discovery, restoration, and deeper connection through the rhythms of the farm, meaningful community, and intentional care.

What Sanctuary 44 Is

A regenerative wellness farm
intentionally created for Black women.

Sanctuary 44 is a regenerative farm in Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley where the land invites a different way of being. Through meaningful community, seasonal gatherings, and the rhythms of the farm, Black women are invited to pause, reconnect, and discover what everyday life may have asked them to set aside.

Whether you come for a quiet afternoon or a private multi-night stay, every experience is designed for Human Renewal.

Who This Is For

Sanctuary 44 is for Black women who...

The Sanctuary 44 Difference

Some places help you disconnect.
Sanctuary 44 helps you reconnect.

Reconnect with yourself.

Reconnect with the land.

Reconnect with community.

Reconnect with what matters most.

Meaningful renewal doesn't happen by accident.
It happens intentionally.

Intentionally Boutique

Designed for depth, not crowds.

Sanctuary 44 experiences are intentionally curated to create space for presence, connection, and meaningful renewal.

Some gatherings may be small and deeply personal. Others may bring more women together around community, celebration, or shared purpose. But every experience is designed with the same care: to help women feel seen, grounded, and connected.

This is not about filling a room.
It is about creating the conditions for Human Renewal.

Here, you'll find:

Some experiences are designed to reach more people.
Sanctuary 44 is designed to reach people more deeply.

I see you. I am you.

There is a kind of tired
that sleep does not fix.

I call it soul-tired.

The kind that comes from years of loud voices telling you who to be, how to show up, and why you were not enough.

The noise is real.
You are not alone.

The Invitation

I invite you into
The Circle at Sanctuary 44.

A private community nestled in Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley, where Black women gather for rest, reclamation, and sisterhood.

Here, stillness becomes the strategy.

A way to hear yourself again.

A way to remember the truth of your I AM.

A place to just be.

The waitlist is open — space is limited

Reserve Your Place
The Circle at Sanctuary 44
One Way Into Sanctuary 44

The Circle at
Sanctuary 44

The Circle is a private community for Black women who are ready to rest, reconnect, and return to themselves. Here, we gather around the land, seasonal beauty, reflection, honest conversation, and sacred sisterhood.

This is not another room where you have to perform. This is a place to just be.

Reserve Your Place in The Circle
I
Stillness

A pause from the noise so you can hear what is true.

II
Sovereignty

A return to the knowing that your life still belongs to you.

III
Strategy

A sacred way to move forward with clarity, not performance.

IV
Sacred Joy

Joy that does not ask for permission.

Pathways Into The Circle

Gathered around the land, the seasons, and each other.

Each experience at Sanctuary 44 is intentionally designed to create the conditions for discovery — helping you reconnect with yourself through the rhythms of the farm, meaningful community, and moments that restore what everyday life often asks you to set aside. Members have first access to everything. All pathways lead back to the same truth — you belong here.

Women gathered at Sanctuary 44
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Sanctuary 44 · Shafer, MN
Members Only · Bi-Monthly
Sisterhood Sundays

Members-only gatherings every other month for rest, reflection, and connection. No agenda. No performance. A place to just be.

Member Exclusive
Intimate Gathering
Tasting Tables

Intimate gatherings around food, beauty, conversation, and sisterhood. Members receive early access and preferred pricing.

Member Early Access
Sanctuary 44 experience
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Seasonal · Now Open
Hands-On Seasonal Experiences

Creative restoration through painting, candle making, tea blending, herbal creation, journaling, and more.

Member Early Access
Signature Experience
Power in the MenoPause™

A signature gathering for Black women navigating midlife, menopause, and renewal. Honest conversation. Embodied wisdom. Sacred joy.

Member Priority
Annual · May
Annual Sisterhood Sleepover

A 3-day, 2-night experience for deeper rest, connection, reflection, and renewal. Members receive priority invitation.

Member Priority
Farm Visits & Daycations · Now Open
The Haven

Farm visits and daycations available now. Luxury overnight glamping stays opening 2027 — members receive first access when reservations open.

Member First Access
The Apothecary
Restorative Goods

Teas, herbs, candles, bath soaks, and other sensory goods. The Sanctuary 44 experience, extended into your everyday.

Community at Sanctuary 44
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"This is not another room where you have to perform. This is a place to just be."

Sanctuary 44 · Shafer, Minnesota
The Farm
✦

Five zones. One living system.

The land is not a backdrop. It is the teacher. Each zone is tended with intention, shaped by season, and designed to remind every woman what it feels like to be deeply, fully restored.

I
The Apothecary
Tea & Herb Gardens

A living pharmacy of medicinal herbs, wildcrafted teas, and botanical wisdom. Breathe differently here.

II
The Orchard
Heritage Fruit Trees

Where the quiet discipline of tending something over time reveals what it means to wait for something worth having.

III
The Hive
Bee Sanctuary

A sanctuary within the sanctuary. A place to witness extraordinary community and rediscover collective purpose.

IV
Rooted
Vegetable Garden

Put your hands in the earth. Watch something you planted become something that feeds you.

V
The Haven
Overnight Stays · Opening 2027

Luxury glamping tents designed for stillness and renewal. Daycations and farm visits available now.

Dr. Deena Brown, Founder of Sanctuary 44
The Founder

Dr. Deena
Brown

"I didn't build this land to escape anything. I built it as a living proof that restoration is real — that the soil knows something we've forgotten, and that coming back to it changes everything."

Dr. Deena Brown has spent more than two decades guiding leaders through the moments that ask the most of them — career transitions, burnout, reinvention, the quiet unraveling that precedes real change. Along the way, she recognized something: many high-achieving women, especially Black women, are not simply searching for rest. They are searching for themselves. Sanctuary 44 was built to create the conditions for that discovery.

Her guiding philosophy is simple: every meaningful transformation begins with a shift. Every lasting transformation ends with a return. Sanctuary 44 was born from that belief — a living laboratory where the practices of tending, resting, pruning, nourishing, and growing become lessons for Human Renewal.

The Waitlist Is Open — Space Is Limited
✦

Reserve your place
in The Circle.

Where stillness meets strategy. Where Black women come to hear themselves again. Where your I AM is the only credential that matters.

Reserve Your Place

sanctuary44.com/circle · Shafer, Minnesota · Where Stillness Meets Strategy™

Connect

Begin your
return.

Whether you are drawn to The Circle, interested in an experience, or simply feel called — we want to hear from you. This is how it starts.

Every inquiry is received with care and responded to personally.

Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley · Shafer, MN
hello@sanctuary44.com