We Help Communities Find Common Ground

---

Facilitated, town hall–style gatherings where:

• Trusted local messengers (pastors, union stewards, teachers, local elected officials, neighborhood      leaders) host conversations in accessible, familiar spaces—churches, union halls, school gyms, community centers, libraries.
• Residents share stories about what they’re proud of, what’s changed, and what keeps them up at night.
• Discussion is guided by values-based prompts rather than policy silos.

Each listening session is designed to feel less like a public hearing and more like a community gathering. Participants are encouraged to speak in their own language about what is working in their community and where they feel the most pressure. Facilitators guide the group toward naming shared values—stability, dignity, safety, opportunity—and surfacing themes that cut across race, age, party, or neighborhood. Over the course of the conversation, the group moves from stories to patterns, and from patterns to a set of clearly articulated priorities. Those priorities are not abstract talking points; they are grounded in the examples people have just shared about their families, workplaces, schools, and streets.

After each session, the Foundation works with local leaders to translate that raw conversation into a concrete roadmap. The ranked list of concerns that emerges in the room is organized into clear, actionable objectives with timelines and ownership. Instead of a long wish list, communities leave with a focused set of goals—for example, safer routes to school within a year, or a clear plan to protect renters from displacement. The Foundation provides templates and guidance so that these priorities can be written up in ways that city councils, school boards, state legislators, and members of Congress can easily understand and respond to. Local leaders are coached on how to present these priorities, how to follow up, and how to keep their neighbors informed as they seek progress.

The Foundation’s work does not end with a single meeting. It also builds the skills of the people who call these communities home. Local leaders and facilitators receive training in how to run inclusive listening sessions that welcome a wide range of voices, especially those who are often missing from traditional political spaces. They learn how to take careful notes, synthesize themes, and preserve the phrases and stories residents actually use. Training also covers basic advocacy skills—how to communicate with policymakers, how to talk to local media, and how to provide nonpartisan voter education so residents know how to register, where to vote, and how their participation connects back to the priorities they named together. Over time, this creates a network of trained community messengers who can repeat the process without having to reinvent it.

• Maintaining a database of community priorities and tracking whether and how policymakers respond.
• Publishing an annual “Community Priorities Report” that aggregates themes and language from sessions across regions, showing what people are saying in their own words.