Team Up Partners Launch Second Cohort to Promote Bridgebuilding, Combat Polarization

Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International, Interfaith America and YMCA of the USA Commit to Training Thousands of Bridgebuilders

CHICAGO, Oct. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Team Up Project, a bridgebuilding initiative launched by 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.

Now in its second year, Team Up is a collaboration of Catholic Charities USA, 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:

• work with others in their communities for the common good
• promote empathy and understanding across cultural, ideological, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds
• create a stronger sense of belonging and unity

Over the past year, grants and network support enabled leaders in 30 communities nationwide to launch local projects that met critical needs in those communities. Though the projects varied widely, they all employed bridgebuilding skills to bring together volunteers from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, fostering a culture of collaboration and mutual respect. The second cohort is supported this year through generous gifts from The Starbucks Foundation and AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund.

"The bridgebuilding activities at the heart of the Team Up Project foster understanding and a sense of belonging at a time when many people feel disconnected from those around them," said YMCA of the USA President and CEO Suzanne McCormick. "Communities are stronger when neighbors are connected to each other, and Team Up aims to help people build relationships, explore and appreciate differences, and work together toward a better future. We see this as a path to a more united country."

"The call to love your neighbor is universal, but it can feel like a daunting task in our increasingly isolated and fractured world," said Kerry Alys Robinson, Catholic Charities USA President and CEO. "Bridgebuilding projects, like those organized by our four organizations through the Team Up Project 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."

"We are striving to build a 'potluck nation' where all Americans bring the best of their identities to the table for a shared feast," said Interfaith America Founder and President Eboo Patel. "Of course we will disagree on some things, but that should not prevent us from working together on other things. Team Up encourages respecting people's diverse identities, building relationships between different communities, and cooperating on concrete projects with common aims."

"Bridgebuilding is needed more than ever in our society. When we come together and serve, we focus on our shared values instead of our differences, making us stronger and more cohesive," said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. "This project highlights the value and positive impact of meaningful connections made across differences, particularly in service to others. We hope to see many more organizations, civic leaders, and others use this platform to inspire shared action for the common good."

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 32 sites 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 PSA, a partnership with the Ad Council and American Immigration Council.

Team Up grew out of the bipartisan United We Stand Summit held at the White House in September 2022. The summit brought together individuals and organizations who could promote bridgebuilding activities that would foster a more united America. Learn more at teamupproject.org.

About Catholic Charities USA
A member of Caritas Internationalis, Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) is the membership office for Catholic Charities agencies nationwide. Catholic Charities USA's members provide help and create hope for more than 15 million people a year regardless of religious, social or economic backgrounds. To learn more about CCUSA, please visit our website at CatholicCharitiesUSA.org or contact Kevin Brennan, Vice President for Media Relations and Executive Communications, at [email protected].

About Habitat for Humanity International

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity found its earliest inspirations as a grassroots movement on an interracial community farm in South Georgia. Since its founding in 1976, the Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

About Interfaith America

Founded in 2002, Interfaith America is the premier interfaith organization in the United States, with a $15M budget, 50 full-time professional staff, and $5M in grants distributed in 2021. Through its initiatives and partnerships, Interfaith America is equipping individuals and professionals with the knowledge and skills needed for leadership in a religiously diverse world.  For more information, please visit their new website and follow Interfaith America on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Interfaith America also recently released a new video "We Need to Build an Interfaith America," where Patel outlines a vision for the next chapter of this organization.

About the Y

Driven by its founding mission, the Y has served as a leading nonprofit committed to strengthening community for more than 175 years. The Y empowers everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, by ensuring access to resources, relationships and opportunities for all to learn, grow and thrive. By bringing together people from different backgrounds, perspectives and generations, the Y's goal is to improve overall health and well-being, ignite youth empowerment and demonstrate the importance of connections in and across 10,000 communities nationwide. Learn more at ymca.org.

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SOURCE YMCA of the USA