The Team Up Project, a bridgebuilding initiative from four of the nation’s leading community organizations, is launching a new cohort of 30 organizations across the United States to bridge divides and create stronger communities. Local Catholic Charities agencies around the country are leading 13 of these new projects.
Now in its second year, Team Up is a collaboration of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), Habitat for Humanity International, Interfaith America and YMCA of the USA. Through Team Up, these organizations have mobilized their vast networks — with more than 7,500 collective sites touching nearly every community in the U.S. — to provide opportunities and resources that inspire people to build connections, allowing them to:
- promote empathy and understanding across cultural, ideological, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds
- create a stronger sense of belonging and unity
- work with others in their communities for the common good
The Catholic Charities agencies participating in the second cohort are: Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens; Catholic Social Services of Columbus; Catholic Charities of East Tennessee; Catholic Charities Diocese of Lansing; Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock; Catholic Charities of Metuchen; Catholic Charities Diocese of Nashville; Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Owensboro; Catholic Charities of Omaha; Catholic Charities of Sacramento; Catholic Charities, San Diego; Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County; and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
The projects organized by these agencies will bring together different populations within their local communities. One initiative will invite young people to help seniors living in shelters learn how to better navigate digital tools. Another will bring rural families together with urban ones within the same diocese to explore solutions to shared and distinct challenges. Though the projects vary widely, they all employ bridgebuilding skills to bring together volunteers from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, fostering a culture of collaboration and mutual respect. The second cohort is being supported this year through generous gifts from The Starbucks Foundation and AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund.
“The call to love your neighbor is universal, but it can feel like a daunting task in our increasingly isolated and fractured world,” CCUSA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson said. “Bridge building projects present an ideal antidote to this challenge. When we come together in service to help solve a problem or address a need in our community, we also gain a deeper understanding of and empathy for the neighbors we encounter.”
Bridgebuilding carries special resonance in this contentious election season. While political participation is a crucial element of a healthy democracy, many events are explicitly partisan and happening in a highly polarized climate, which may raise pre-existing tensions locally. Team Up aims to counter polarization by promoting civic engagement through community service projects that unite people across divides.
While organizations from 23 states across every region of the country, from California to Missouri to Maine, are participating in Team Up Project’s second cohort, everyone across the nation is invited to participate. Visit teamupproject.org to access a free bridgebuilding curriculum, models of initiatives from the first year, stories of impact, and the Shared Table public service announcement, a partnership with the Ad Council and American Immigration Council.
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