October 30, 2014 | Read Time: 7 minutes
Most people aren’t paying attention to the midterm elections, and that’s no surprise. This election season offers little promise for breaking the current political gridlock and giving people hope that progress will be made on education, jobs, and other everyday concerns.
But as I’ve been traveling the country for nearly a year, it’s clear the country doesn’t need to settle for the status quo. And it isn’t doing so: New nonprofits are springing up across the United States. In South Carolina, an organization that is barely a year old is lending medical equipment for free to anyone in need. Another group is taking flight in communities across Mississippi, providing resources for early-childhood development.
And as I have spoken to grant makers, many of them are eager to help such organizations make a difference.
It’s clear to me that the acrimony that permeates our political discourse may not inspire a race to the voting booth, but even in the most politically contentious states I’ve visited there’s a yearning among people to get onto a new path of possibility and hope.
Just beneath the surface of today’s skepticism—even cynicism—people want to solve common problems together and be a part of something larger than themselves. In my travels, I have also found a renewed desire among people to ensure that every individual has a shot at the American Dream and that each one of us has the opportunity to fulfill our innate potential.
Americans want to help build this new path. After all, we Americans are builders. It’s part of our national character. It’s in our DNA. To move the country forward, we must return to this practical idea.
Today the nation finds itself fast approaching a major inflection point. People’s frustration and anger are colliding with their desire for something different. They’re tired of the status quo and they want to take responsibility to shape a common enterprise again.
To move forward, we need to restore our belief that we can get things done together.
However, getting past our differences will take more than just talk. We have to take action together. That’s the only way we will build the trust and confidence needed to tackle bigger challenges.
This is happening right now in Mississippi. In just 10 years, the group Excel by 5, which focuses on early-childhood development, has grown from four test projects to 35 chapters statewide. At its Summit in Jackson, I heard representatives from throughout the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere explain how organizations, leaders, volunteers, and families are coming together to support youngsters so they’re healthy and ready to start school.
In South Carolina, the Spartanburg Shares Medical Loan Closet is a 50-person, all-volunteer group that formed in October 2013. Many of the borrowers help others by donating equipment they’ve found in their attics or basements. I met with the organization’s trustees in a makeshift conference room, where they told me of their modest beginnings and their dreams to expand their work.
None of these relatively small actions on their own will transform the nation, let alone a single community. But they are the vital seed beds for instilling confidence that people can break through the anger and frustration America is mired in. They demonstrate that it is possible to cross dividing lines to build trust. From there, larger actions will be more possible.
Another example of a community taking a different path is Colorado Springs. When I was there in May, the political tension and backbiting had become so ingrained and heated that some businesses had decided not to locate there. Various community efforts were stymied.
But over 200 people came to an event my organization held to help people find a way forward. There I challenged the community to end the blame game. Just recently, a group of businesspeople created a new organization, Colorado Springs Forward, to address the region’s challenges and make the community a more desirable place for all.
Already it has pledged $100,000 for a storm-water initiative on the November ballot and is working on several other programs. “We really want to change the way the dialogue goes forward,” one board member said.
And there is other movement afoot: On a Saturday morning in September, a group of volunteers joined together for a cleanup project. In the words of one volunteer: “If we, the citizens, get out there and start showing the importance of what we believe in, then more people will start believing in that as well.”
What the people of Colorado Springs are doing—as are the people throughout Mississippi, in Spartanburg, and elsewhere—is creating a new, can-do narrative that progress is possible.
When I was in Sarasota, Fla., groups working on homelessness were joining together to deal with the problem. They had already made impressive progress, but they were quick to tell me that deeper progress would come only if they could rise above jockeying for credit and resources and begin to work collectively. Progress won’t come by different groups going it alone.
While in Sarasota, I also visited Patriot Plaza, a new ceremonial amphitheater at Sarasota National Cemetery. The Patterson Foundation funded the plaza and is hosting the Veterans Legacy Summit this month, which will gather leaders and groups from across the country to build stronger efforts to support the nation’s veterans and military families. The plaza is a tribute to those who have built the nation, and the conference is a platform for the builders to come.
There is no question that trust comes from people doing things together. That was the case in Washington State’s Snohomish County, where 43 people died in March in the deadliest landside in U.S. history.
After that tragic event, the community quickly raised more than $2.5-million for those affected by the disaster. A local bank stepped forward and forgave home mortgages and car loans. Six months later, at an event organized by the local United Way, there was a burgeoning sense of pride as I spoke to more than 600 people gathered to honor those who had been part of efforts to rebuild the community.
That same resilience was evident to me in Newtown, Conn., where I was asked to help design and lead a process for deciding the fate of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Months earlier, Adam Lanza had gone on a shooting rampage, killing 26 children and educators.
After meeting several times and hearing outpourings from parents of victims, survivors, teachers, and others, the committee I led unanimously decided to raze and rebuild the school. In the process, the people of Newtown showed the country that it is possible for a community to pivot from trauma and despair to healing and hope.
There are many challenges across this country—but there are also growing resources being put behind community efforts to address them. At a recent talk I gave before 200 foundation executives and other donors gathered at the Aspen Institute, I found leaders eager to learn how they could make smart investments in collective community efforts.
Young Americans also want to know what they can do to help. On my visits to Georgia Tech, Murray State University, and Millsaps College, students asked penetrating questions about concrete steps they could take to help build stronger communities—everything from bridging divides in their dorms to launching new socially minded businesses.
In recent conversations I conducted with the country’s leading thinkers and practitioners on democracy and American life, a common undercurrent was the belief that even with the corrosive public discourse and polarization, people want to work together to solve problems and build something together. But many of these leaders also talked about feeling conflicted.
Martha McCoy, executive director of Everyday Democracy, told me she felt “bifurcated—probably more so than any time that I can remember from being in communities and working with folks. I see the comparison between what people long for and what they feel like is possible. … It’s that kind of disconnect between what we know is possible and what is available.”
Ms. McCoy’s sentiments are a reminder that while there are new opportunities to build success, there’s no quick fix. But I have witnessed people taking the steps that instill confidence that this country can move in a better direction.
Now, as we stand at a critical moment in our history, we face an important choice about how we will move forward. Let us borrow a lesson from our own past and remember this: We are a nation of builders. Despite our divisions and challenges, we can get things done—together.
Rich Harwood is founder and president of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, which teaches and coaches people and organizations to work with others to solve pressing problems.
