Uniting across divides.
Founding Organizations
About Us
Our Vision
The Team Up Project is invested in the power of connection to bridge divides, to cultivate cooperation across differences, and to create a brighter future for our communities and our nation.
- 10,000 people
- 1,000 events
- 300 communities
Our Goal
Team Up’s goal is to empower people to build connections across differences with others in their communities. The Team Up Project aims to create avenues for bridgebuilding by offering tools, resources, and programming that equip people and organizations with the skills to celebrate differences, identify shared values, and work together to address shared needs.
What We Do
The Team Up Project will provide 10,000 Americans training in transformative listening, storytelling, and relationship-building skills, equipping participants with the tools they need to build connections in their communities. The Team Up Project will bring people together to build stronger communities and serve the common good.
How Do You Team Up?
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FAQs
What is the Team Up Project’s Mission?
The Team Up Project (Team Up)’s mission is to empower people to build connections and work together across differences with others in their communities for the common good.
Team Up believes people can play a leading role in building a stronger sense of belonging and unity in their local communities by promoting empathy and understanding across cultural, ethnic, religious and ideological divides. Strong personal connections and supportive, constructive and collaborative environments are the foundation of thriving communities.
The Team Up Project aims to bring people from diverse backgrounds together and create avenues for bridgebuilding by offering tools, resources, and programming that equip individuals with the skills to respect and celebrate differences as well as identify shared values. The goal is to elevate and support ordinary acts of kindness, human connection and cooperation – and demonstrate that bridgebuilding is an achievable and worthy pursuit that everyone should take part in. The Team Up Project will not only share stories about the value of building meaningful connections across differences but also create a platform for organizations and leaders to work together to create strong, cohesive communities.
Who are the founding partners?
Interfaith America, Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International and YMCA of the USA are the founding partners of Team Up.
The initiative is the first of its kind in terms of scope, scale and reach, with several of the largest service-oriented organizations in the country uniting behind a common purpose: creating community in a divided society and achieving more, together. The founding partners will utilize their organizational strengths and expertise – including their vast networks and resources – to facilitate bridgebuilding across the U.S. and elevate the important work that is already under way.
How did the Team Up Project start?
The Team Up Project initiative was born out of a collective recognition among its founding partners that there exists a pressing need for stronger connections and understanding in our communities.
Team Up began as a part of the bipartisan United We Stand Summit at the White House in September 2022, which sought to counter the corrosive effects of hate-fueled violence on our democracy and put forward a shared vision for a more united America.
In the face of growing polarization, these organizations saw an opportunity to not only leverage their unique strengths and resources to empower individuals to bridge differences, but also create a dedicated space for other non-profits, organizers and leaders to collaborate and advance their community-building work.
What kind of work will the initiative do?
The initiative will serve two distinct objectives.
First, the Team Up Project will seek to highlight, support and expand the reach of bridgebuilding activities, programs and projects through partner organizations and their networks. Team Up will showcase bridgebuilding in action, share stories about the positive impact of human connection and elevate ongoing organizational work.
Second, the initiative will offer resources, toolkits, best practices, and training to educate those in communities across the United States about the importance of bridgebuilding and prepare them to connect to local efforts.
Are there plans to expand the initiative beyond the four founding partner organizations?
Yes, the goal of the initiative is to build a vast network of national, state, local and community organizations that will all work together to create personal connection, bridge existing societal divides and create lasting change that benefits all Americans.
What is Bridgebuilding?
For the Team Up Project, bridgebuilding is coming together across differences to respect, relate, and cooperate. There are many organizations leading bridgebuilding work with a range of approaches and priorities. For the Team Up project we prioritize respecting diverse identities and divergent ideologies, building mutually inspiring relationships across differences, and shared action for the common good. Bridgebuilding is a means toward greater organizational impact, and a good in itself.
What work is Team Up doing?
Bridgebuilding work is already underway. With financial support from generous partners, the Team Up Project engaged with leaders from 32 communities across the country – from Nashville, Tennessee to San Diego, California – and awarded grants to support local projects focused on creating bonds, fostering understanding and collaborating to address a community need among people with different socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, racial and political backgrounds and affiliations. These pilot programs will take different forms based on the needs of the local communities they serve and will explore new approaches and strategies for civic community-building.
How can I get involved in the initiative?
From community volunteers and local leaders to PTA parents and t-ball coaches, we want everyone to get involved – in big ways and small. If you’re interested in ending the cycle of distrust and alienation and creating communities that celebrate differences and foster understanding, Team Up With Us.
If you are an organization looking to become a partner, fill out the contact form and a representative from our team will be in touch.
Team Up in Action
YMCA of Greater Birmingham (AL)
The YMCA of Greater Birmingham hosted a Teen Bridge Building Summit with 117 students from 17 schools on a Saturday, with assistance from almost 40 adults from YMCA, the church, the schools, NewGen Peacebuilder’s Project, and parents. Since the event, students and parents have remarked on the amazing impact and schools have been interested in hosting a similar event.
After two sessions on bridgebuilding, students from 17 different schools explored ways to build bridges within their schools, homes and communities, sharing barriers they face from building bridges in their daily lives and what solutions could look like. They were very eager to share their thoughts, and they realized everyone had something to offer to the conversations.
They identified ways that the YMCA and other community organizations can stand in the gap to create program and civic opportunities. Several of the teens agreed to be a part of a youth advisory council for the YMCA to be a leader to continue conversations and help put plans of action into place. The council will have students represented from a diverse group of teens across the community.
Pike’s Peak Habitat for Humanity: Colorado Springs Dialogue Focuses on Neighborliness
On Sunday, February 4 Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity hosted a panel with speakers from various religious backgrounds and worldviews discussing what their traditions have to say about neighborliness. A representative from the Colorado Springs Mayor’s Office also shared remarks. Following the speakers, participants spent 45 minutes in small groups discussing their own identities and views as well as challenges and opportunities for their own neighborhoods when it comes to housing and building stronger social bonds. Earlier in the weekend participants from different congregations had also taken part in an in interfaith build.
Austin Y and Catholic Charities (TX)
YMCA of Austin and the local Catholic Charities partnered with Mobile Loaves & Fishes, an outreach ministry working to support unhoused community members. Members of the YMCA, Catholic Charities, and unhoused residents shared lunch and bridgebuilding dialogue that reflected on differing and shared experiences of home and homelessness. The event culminated in shared service during which all participants build outreach packets that could be shared with other unhoused people in the community and included material and informational resources.
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara (CA)
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara hosted a Lunar New Year celebration for community members and its early childhood education center families in the Santee neighborhood, a predominantly Hispanic and Vietnamese community. The program ran during the typical pick-up window for children from EduCare- to enable families to participate. When families registered on site they were given red envelopes and could earn tickets for multiple raffle prizes by participating in the many educational activities throughout the halls. Vietnamese and Hispanic staff from Catholic Charities and their partners co-staffed tables to enable easy communication, education, and fun for everyone who participated.
YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties (WA)
The YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties hosted a series of dialogues called “Bridge of Hope” starting in the fall of 2023 and continuing through April 2024. The topics of the dialogues centered on imagining and expressing to others the future each participant desired for the community and also identifying how democracy was or was not serving this future. The ultimate focus was to bring generations together to hear each other’s stories and the values that drive their perspectives and understanding. Conversations were hosted within the seven distinctive communities the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties serves; Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Bremerton, Silverdale, Lakewood, Sumner, and Puyallup. Various stakeholders and Y partners were invited to engage in the dialogues. The dialogues were intergenerational, including members from the Y’s Youth and Government program, students from the University Y of UWT (Tacoma), Y youth leadership groups, participants in young adult programming, family programming, and 55+ Y members.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville (TN)
Habitat of Greater Nashville invited 15 local clergy to participate in a nine-month ministry cohort, from September to May, to create more space filled with intentional dialogue around the subjects of bridging gaps in a divided city, concentrating on the miracle of interfaith relationships for the common good of any city, large or small. Clergy were invited from a cross section of race, congregational size, denominational affiliation, and faith background and affirmed the role of male and female senior leadership. To model bridgebuilding leadership, area clergy engaged one another to create safe space for leadership renewal and to encourage and equip one another to call their respective congregations into bridgebuilding efforts in their neighborhoods and communities too. Each month the “Bridgebuilding Fellows” came together for 90 minutes to share a meal and dialogue with a moderated topic driven discussion. Fifteen volunteer build slots were reserved at the end of the spring build season exclusively for the Bridgbuilder Fellows to come together on the Habitat build site for bonding and purpose driven work. A prominent keynote speaker was invited to the last meeting in May, after which a commissioning service was held to “send out” these Fellows into the diverse city they are called to serve.
Why We Team Up
In a time of heightened divisiveness and deepening social fragmentation, creating meaningful connections among neighbors can help lessen the chasm. Through this coordinated and wide-ranging effort, we hope to forge uncommon partnerships and collaborations in communities around the country by embracing our common humanity, celebrating our shared values and respecting our differences.”
Kerry Alys Robinson
Catholic Charities USA President & CEO
Living in modern America often means living and working with those with whom we deeply disagree. The institutions we lead show that it is possible to have conflicting views on major policy issues, even vote for different candidates, and still work with one another to build a Habitat for Humanity house, support a YMCA summer camp, or feed people at a Catholic Charities agency.
Eboo Patel
Founder and President of Interfaith America
Civic institutions across the nation have been living by this ideal for generations. As leaders of four prominent nonprofits, we are proud to renew our commitment to bring people together, facilitate conversations across differences, and unite our communities around common goals. We have the opportunity to address one of the greatest challenges of our time, and we urge leaders from civic institutions across the nation to join us. Together, we can build a more unified nation.”
Suzanne McCormick
YMCA of the USA President & CEO
This partnership demonstrates what we all know to be true: that we accomplish more together than divided. Through each of our organizations, millions of mission-driven volunteers collaborate to build bridges and a greater sense of community with neighbors from all walks of life. Meaningful and lasting change happens when people put aside their differences to work alongside one another toward a shared goal.”
Jonathan Reckford
CEO of Habitat for Humanity International
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