Can working side-by-side toward a common goal truly overcome the feeling of polarization flooding the nation? The partner organizations in the Team Up Project enthusiastically say “Yes!” 

“When organizations show people what it’s like to work together across all kinds of difference—that really can be the antidote to all that polarization,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. “I’ve seen miraculous things happen.” 

Positioning collaborative work across differences as the antidote for divisiveness was the prevailing theme for Team Up’s Spring Convening. This event served as a training platform for Team Up’s second cohort of 38 sites planning local projects to strengthen their communities. More than 100 participants engaged in interactive workshops and collaborative networking, all aimed at strengthening the impact of their projects. 

With 80% of U.S. adults believing we are a divided nation and 50% experiencing chronic loneliness and social isolation, we need a vision that brings us together, said Earl Grandberry, Director of National Bridgebuilding Initiatives for Interfaith America. “In essence, we need more authentic, genuine, and lasting hope. 

“And it will not come from elected officials or political affiliations, it will come from you,” Grandberry told convening participants in his opening remarks. “It will come from those in their local communities doing the work, being a voice for the voiceless, and advocating for those who cannot defend themselves.” 

Now in its second year, Team Up is a collaboration of Catholic Charities, Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith America and YMCA of the USA. Through Team Up, these organizations have mobilized their vast local networks—with more than 7,500 collective sites touching nearly every community in the U.S.—to promote community service projects that unite people across divides.  

Suzanne McCormick, President and CEO of YMCA of the USA, said the cohorts share methodologies and best practices from their local projects so Team Up can scale, and local impact can grow. The kinds of work Team Up cohorts do can be seen in Project Playbooks on TeamUpProject.org.  

The key is having people work “shoulder-to-shoulder” on things they can agree on while they share what inspires them from their different identities, said Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith America.  

“This work feels innovative even though the organizations that are doing it have been doing it for a long, long time,” he said. 

Although local cohorts are leading the work, everyone—individuals and groups across the nation—can participate. From teamupproject.org, anyone can access a free bridgebuilding curriculum, models of initiatives from the first year, stories of impact, and a PSA called “Shared Table,” a partnership with the Ad Council and American Immigration Council. 

“I’m deeply hopeful that interventions and initiatives like Team Up will restore what we know in our core–that we are so much more united, that we have so much more in common,” said Kerry Alys Robinson, President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA. “That we yearn for the same things—peace and prosperity and the freedom to serve each other, especially those most in need of our merciful care.”