There are many fine organizations that bring people together and encourage them to engage in discussions and share their stories. But it isn’t always logistically or geographically feasible to engage everyone in such face-to-face efforts. Moreover, not everyone is open to participating in this way. It can take courage to meet with those we suspect may challenge our beliefs.
Building Bridges Word by Word provides an alternative way to meet those outside of our circles. On our website, people can read about the lives of others, find connections, and develop the confidence to reach out in additional ways.
For those who are ready to take the next step, we have compiled a list of innovative organizations that are bringing people together, building understanding, and helping to bridge our divides. If you know of other organizations to add to this list, please fill out our suggestion form. If you have questions, contact us at buildingbridgeswbw@gmail.com.
The Center for Courage & Renewal is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 by author, activist, and educator Parker J. Palmer. Through Circle of Trust retreats and other programs rooted in the Courage & Renewal approach, the Center nurtures supportive communities of reflection and practice to help people come alive with a renewed sense of purpose, builds trustworthy relationships, and cultivates the courage to rise to today’s challenges, making a difference within themselves and their communities.
Through its Democracy that Unites Us program area, The Fetzer Institute is committed to working to heal the heart of US democracy. They support efforts that focus on the cultural aspects of democracy—that expand the idea of “we” the people, build mutual respect and relationships across difference, and help people get skilled at power sharing—to strengthen our country’s social fabric.
The Practicing Democracy Project is a collaboration between the Center for Spirituality & Practice and the Fetzer Institute. The Project assumes that American democracy can flourish only when citizens are united, at a deep level that transcends ideology, race, and class, to a shared spiritual and moral vision of what America should be. The Project offers spiritual practices and resources for various constituencies, including congregations, schools, businesses, advocacy groups, government agencies, and workplaces.
The National Issues Forum (NIF) is a non-partisan, citizen-led nationwide network committed to promoting deliberative discussions of issues that impact public life in America. For 40 years, the National Issues Forums (NIF) has partnered with individuals and organizations to bring people together through in-person and online forums to talk about today’s pressing issues in ways that make working together more likely.
Braver Angels seeks to depolarize American politics. Their work is rooted in grassroots organizing. Their volunteer leaders (supported by a small staff) leverage Braver Angels programs and unique organizing structure to impact community life and American institutions. The foundation of all their activities is what they refer to as patriotic-empathy: the idea that our love for our country is shown by our concern for our fellow citizens.
New Pluralists is a funder collaborative focused on supporting the growing field of practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and innovators working to foster a culture of pluralism in America. They are committed to the vital work of healing our divisions by helping Americans recognize our shared humanity, embrace our differences, and solve challenges together. They believe that humanizing our neighbors and making room for diverse values and viewpoints are steps along the path to a healthier democracy and a more just society in which each of us feels we belong.
Service Space offers “hands, head, heart” process – consisting of personal practices, peer learning, group reflections, and design thinking – on a gifted basis via their innovative “Pod Technology“. Each Pod offers a unique peer learning environment for everyday heroes and change-makers to create social change while leading with inner transformation.
Nic Askew uses the camera to capture an unyielding experience of truthfulness, taking his film subjects far beyond the experience of the mind and deep into an inner and wiser world. His Inner View Method has given rise to the acclaimed Soul Biographies Film Series. Askew has set out to capture The Soul of This Human Race on film, in all its shades and from all four corners. So that we might see ourselves reflected in each other. So that we might see beyond all differences. So that we might come to remember that we each belong without condition. When one catches sight of an inner view of another everything changes.
This purpose of this remarkable website, originated by the late psychologist Robert Ornstein and Sally Mallam, is to make known to the general public discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, genetics, and other fields, that reveal how humans evolved, what makes us human, and what we can become. The relevance to Building Bridges Word by Word is at the heart of this quote from the scholar Idries Shah: “Tolerance and trying to understand others, until recently a luxury, has today become a necessity. This is because: unless we can realize that we and others are generally behaving as we do because of inculcated biases over which we have no control while we imagine that they are our own opinions, we might do something which would bring about the destruction of all of us. Then we will not have any time at all to learn whether tolerance is a good or a bad thing…”