Driving into Rockford, Ill., you notice a story that the city tells through its geography. The interstate cuts through the far east side, a decision that decades ago helped shape the city’s racial and economic divides. White flight followed, and the west side—home to many of Rockford’s Black and Brown residents—faced years of disinvestment. But this isn’t the only place where difference lives in Rockford.
This is a community of many faiths. While Christianity remains dominant, Rockford is also home to growing populations of Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and other faith traditions. It’s a place where residents span the political spectrum, too.
It’s in this complex, vibrant community that Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity and the Team Up Project came together to do something extraordinary: host the city’s first-ever Interfaith Build on Sept. 23, 2025.
The Interfaith Build
The Team Up Project—a national partnership between Interfaith America, Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International, and the YMCA—champions bridgebuilding through service. Habitat for Humanity envisions a world where everyone has a decent place to live. In Rockford, these missions took on new meaning as people from different faiths, backgrounds, and beliefs came together to build not just a house, but a home—and a stronger community.
The Interfaith Build began with guest speakers and a prayer walk through the neighborhood. At each station, participants paused to reflect and pray. Throughout each stop, voices from different traditions offered prayers and reflections, weaving together a tapestry of shared values and hopes. The build day ended with a group debrief, where participants explored questions like: How does your tradition view home? What does your faith say about caring for neighbors? What does community mean to you?
The answers were as varied as the people present, but a common thread emerged: a belief in dignity, belonging, and the power of shared action. As Laura Garton, a deacon at Christ Lutheran Church, noted: “We can disagree on many things, but when we take away our shared sense of humanity, we (all) lose.”
Building Bridges: Respect, Relate, & Cooperate
For Team Up, bridgebuilding is rooted in shared action. It’s not about erasing differences—it’s about working together across them. This means that even when individuals or groups might have fundamentally different views on how to address a problem, they can still agree that there is a problem. And they can work together.
At Interfaith America, we understand this kind of bridgebuilding with the Respect, Relate, Cooperate framework. It begins with Respect—recognizing and honoring the identities, beliefs, and experiences of others, even when they differ from our own. Respect doesn’t require agreement; it requires acknowledgment and a willingness to listen. And, as Keri Asevedo, executive director of Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity, said, “first and foremost – one of the necessities to build bridges is just an open heart.”
Next comes Relate—building genuine relationships across lines of difference. This means moving beyond tolerance to connection. Relate is about finding common values, sharing stories, and seeing the humanity in one another. During the Interfaith Build, volunteers didn’t just work side by side—they talked, laughed, and learned from each other. They shared what “home” means in their faiths, how their traditions call them to care for neighbors, and what community looks like in their lives.
Finally, Cooperate—taking action together toward a shared goal. Cooperation is where bridgebuilding becomes tangible. It’s where respect and relationship turn into impact. In Rockford, that impact was a home built by many hands, each driven by different motivations but united by a common goal.
“The heart of our nation.”
A powerful affirmation echoed throughout the day’s work: “We all deserve dignity. We all deserve a safe place to call home.”
This belief is at the heart of Habitat’s work. When someone applies for a Habitat home, it’s about more than the paperwork. Together, we build and sustain a community long after a family moves into their new home. Volunteers and staff get to know the families, their stories, their struggles, and their dreams. “People in the community—they’re just like us,” Asevedo said. “They are the heart of our nation.”
In Rockford, the Interfaith Build showed that bridgebuilding doesn’t have to be abstract. It can be as concrete as laying a foundation, as personal as sharing a prayer, and as transformative as constructing a home. It is through these actions, through building these relationships and bridging these communities, that we can continue to create the very best of America. In places like Rockford, when the community’s rich diversity is not only recognized but intentionally harnessed and engaged as a strength, it fuels a vibrant and pluralistic home for all its residents.
