Spreading Some Community Love - PowerHouseCreatives Contest

New contest by #powerhousecreatives "Love Your Steem Communities" gives us members a chance to show our love and appreciation for the communities who have contributed and impacted lives on this blockchain.

I have two communities which are closely entwined -
@HomesteadersCoop founded by @sagescrub and @NaturalMedicine founded by @riverflows

Let's start with @homesteaderscoop and this quick video

The Homesteaders Coop is a Free Community Marketplace for Handmade Goods where vendors accept STEEM/SBD/USD plus more options are being added all the time as they are continually working to improve to make this the best marketplace it can possibly be!
They believe in the Gift economy

Homesteaders Co-op embodies a gift economy. We are gifting an online store to our vendors because we believe their ethics and their hard work is making our world a better place. Operating in and fostering a gift economy will continue to open new opportunities that will both strengthen our community and empower our members. We will create new tools that will allow our vendors to gift each other. By building opportunities for gifting into our community economy we will create strength and resilience in our community.

source from their Fundition report read it here

They have chosen not to be a middle man and there is absolutely no fees involved for vendors or buyers.

At the Homesteaders Coop folks are given a chance to get to know the vendors for they are fellow Steemians which brings me to another point -
They are a perfect place for on-boarding folks with their Co-op website https://homesteaderscoop being a meeting ground between two financial and social worlds.
They act as ambassadors for Steem, being very community oriented.
They have community Contributors to their community blog who also help nurture newly on-boarded members.
They aim to empower, not just homesteaders but other communities too, as they integrate other communities into their platform as core threads.

The founder (@sagescrub) is a vendor at the Homesteaders Co-op which gives him added incentive to see it flourish.
He also holds an MS in Computer Science and is experienced in web design, user experience and web development.

You can read the introduction post for the Homesteaders coop at: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@homesteaderscoop/supporting-a-steem-community-economy-intention-values-and-ethics-in-our-products-introducing-homesteaders-co-op

The other community I wish to show some love to is @NaturalMedicine
Here's a quick video featuring some of their members and what they are about.

I love @sagescrub definition of the role Natural Medicine plays here on STEEM

@NaturalMedicine community here on steem serving a very important role and filling a huge need. We as a human race need healing; spiritual healing, mental healing, emotional healing and physical healing. Many of us are waking up and realizing that we don't know how to naturally nourish one or more of our mind, body, or spirit.
This need for healing applies to every individual on steem, whether they are on the path or not. Those, like myself, that are waking up and realizing that natural nourishment is essential to human health; we can benefit from the Natural Medicine community. The people in the @naturalmedicine community are learning together. And those that have wisdom are offering it to those that are in need.

Taken from the new Natural Medicine Members Feature 5 Questions
These were asked of @riverflows by me concerning Natural Medicine -

@Porters: You are the founder of the @Naturalmedicine Community. What was it that gave you the initiative to put this in place and did you work on it in alone or with others? What were your initial thought on what it would become and with the way it has really grown by leaps and bounds, did you foresee it becoming what it is and what future growth would you like to see?
Well, as you know, I was a member of @ecotrain, whose tagline is 'making the world a better place'. I met lots of great people there - a really supportive, beautiful group of people including @mountainjewel, @trucklife-family and @senorcoconut, all who are in Natural Medicine with us too. People who use the #ecotrain tag would - and do - post stuff about the environment, health and all sorts of conscious articles. I'd become very close to @holisticmom, who had a lot of experience with social media and natural healing, and she wanted to start a group that more specifically dealth with natural medicines. So I see @ecotrain as our parent, really, and we were an offspring.
Me being who I am, I went crazy making banners (@hungryhustle kindly designed our heart and lotus logo) and the Discord channel. I like that techie creative side of things. @mountainjewel was also onboard early on. I definitely didn't really know what I was doing! We had the support of @tribesteemup early on before they lost their delegation and consequently, we lost that delegation, but by charging people a small fee to join the Discord, and me delegating pretty much all my Steempower to it, plus generous donations from @walkerland, @sagescrub and @artemislives, we were able to get our upvote happening again. Of course, I'd like to get more delegation (know anyone?) so we can support you more, but that might be wishful thinking in the current climate.
I'm really proud of what Natural Medicine has become. I was so stressed for a while there trying to make it work and with @mountainjewel being hella busy with her own stuff and @holisticmom getting on with real life in her new home in Spain, I was all out running a monster I didn't know how to control! But now it's got it's own flow and there's a great team of people willing to help out - @nateonsteemit has been an absolute legend there, as has @walkerland and yourself. Without the core team and it's enthusiastic members, I think I would have given up. I may have founded it but I want to see it grow into something everyone owns and contributes to. And lots of people KNOW the #naturalmedicine tag now and use it, as they know they'll get engagement from like minded people.
I've been Facebook stalking the Herbal Medicine group there - do you know it has 53 thousand members? So my dream would be to compete with that - we're on nearly 100 but I'm not sure how many have dropped off when the price of Steem dropped. The Discord server is definitely where it's at - if you're natural medicine advice, that's the place to go to. I've seen people ask for help with thrush or warts or lung infections, and get a whole heap of response. There's always someone around up for a chat.
Ideally, if Steemit gets bigger, which we're all hoping it will, we'll get more people in to share more natural healing wisdoms without censorship. And so many Steemians are into it - natural medicine is PUNK ANARCHIC AWESOMENESS. It puts you in charge of your own life, saves you money, and fucks with the powers that be that want to sell you life cures that don't work or make you sicker or drain your wallet. Come join us. Now. Discord link https://discord.gg/DCTDJ3u

.You can read Natural Medicines introductory post here.