How Zac Brown Turned 400 Acres of Georgia Farmland Into a Place of Purpose

Zac Brown could have bought hundreds of acres of Georgia farmland and turned it into a private retreat.

For a Grammy-winning musician who had spent years recording albums, touring across the country and performing in front of enormous crowds, few people would have questioned such a decision. The land could have become a quiet escape from celebrity life—a place for privacy, family and relaxation.

Instead, Brown had something very different in mind.

He wanted to create a place for other people.

That vision eventually became Camp Southern Ground, a nonprofit organization in Fayetteville, Georgia, that serves two groups whose needs may initially seem very different: children and veterans.

According to Camp Southern Ground, Brown purchased approximately 400 acres of farmland in Fayetteville in 2011 with the intention of creating a facility dedicated to serving youth and veterans. The organization says Brown's own childhood experiences as a camper and later a camp counselor played an important role in shaping that vision.

More than a decade later, the land has become something much larger than a celebrity passion project.

During the summer, children arrive for inclusive residential camp sessions. During much of the rest of the year, veterans and military families come to the property for programs focused on transition, purpose, wellbeing and connection.

It is one piece of land serving two populations at very different stages of life.

Yet underneath both missions is essentially the same idea:

People need places where they feel that they belong.

A Dream That Started Long Before Fame

Camp Southern Ground was not simply an idea Zac Brown came up with after becoming successful.

Summer camp had already been an important part of his own life.

Brown grew up attending camp and later worked as a counselor. Those experiences convinced him that camp could have a profound influence on a young person's development.

In a 2018 interview with Forbes, Brown explained that Camp Southern Ground was his way of giving back after the success he had experienced.

He told Forbes that his own life had been shaped by attending camp as a child and described Camp Southern Ground as a place where children could learn lessons that matter beyond the camp itself.

That personal connection helps explain why the project became so ambitious.

Brown was not merely attaching his name to an existing charity.

He was attempting to recreate something he believed had changed his own life—while expanding the concept so children with very different needs and backgrounds could experience it together.

According to Camp Southern Ground, Brown purchased the farmland in Fayetteville in 2011. The property is located roughly 30 miles south of Atlanta.

The project also attracted attention locally from its earliest stages.

In December 2011, local newspaper The Citizen reported that a proposed Camp Southern Ground development had received unanimous rezoning approval from the Fayette County Commission. The newspaper noted that many supporters who attended the meeting were parents of children with special needs who hoped their children would be able to benefit from the camp.

It was an early indication that Brown's idea was intended to be more than a conventional summer camp.

Inclusion would become one of its defining characteristics.

A Summer Camp Where Differences Don't Have to Divide Children

Today, Camp Southern Ground describes its summer program as an inclusive residential camp for children ages 7 through 17.

The camp brings together typically developing children and children with neurodevelopmental differences, as well as underserved young people and children from military families.

That means a child with autism may participate alongside a child without a developmental diagnosis.

A child with learning or attention differences can share experiences with campers who face entirely different challenges.

Children whose parents serve in the military can meet children from civilian families.

The objective is not to pretend those differences do not exist.

Instead, the camp attempts to create an environment where differences do not automatically become barriers.

This inclusive approach has received independent media coverage.

In 2019, FOX 5 Atlanta visited Camp Southern Ground during its summer season and reported that the camp was serving children ages 7 to 17 through week-long residential sessions. FOX 5 noted that the program included children with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other learning challenges.

The report also highlighted the variety of activities available to campers, including arts and crafts, gardening, culinary programs, music, dance, sports, a ropes course and ziplines.

Those activities are fun, but they also serve another purpose.

Camp gives children opportunities to try unfamiliar things.

A child may climb higher than they thought they could.

They may perform in front of other campers.

They may learn how food grows.

They may work with a team.

They may make a friend who thinks, communicates or experiences the world differently from them.

Those moments can appear small to adults.

For children, they can be significant.

Confidence is often built through a collection of experiences in which a young person discovers, little by little, that they are capable of more than they assumed.

The Importance of Simply Belonging

For children who frequently feel different, belonging can be especially powerful.

A child with autism, ADHD, dyslexia or another developmental or learning difference may spend significant portions of everyday life being reminded of what makes them different.

At an inclusive camp, those differences can exist without determining every social interaction.

Brown explained part of this philosophy to Forbes.

He described the camp as a way to serve children while giving them models and experiences that could ultimately be carried back into the wider world.

That is an important distinction.

The objective is not merely to entertain children for a week.

The hope is that something experienced at camp remains after they return home.

Maybe it is greater confidence.

Maybe it is a new friendship.

Maybe it is increased independence.

Or perhaps it is simply the realization that being different does not mean being alone.

The property's mission becomes even more unusual once summer ends.