Help reduce toxic polarization. Join us to identify, create and test messages to increase the number and diversity of Americans participating in  events, like America Talks, that are designed to reduce polarization by bridging differences.

In the face of threats to democracy in the form of rising division and toxic polarization in the US, hundreds of organizations are at work bridging divides by bringing together Americans from across the political spectrum, racial and geographic divides at events on and off line. There is increasing evidence that these bridging events are successful in what they set out to do, humanizing the “other”, creating connection in place of animosity. Yet while these groups know well how to bridge divides once Americans arrive at their events, they acknowledge that a challenge is getting more Americans - particularly those who may not be predisposed to bridging - in the room.

YOUnify and Civic Health Project are bringing together practitioners, researchers and creatives to imagine, develop and test messaging strategies to reach more Americans and motivate them to sign up and attend bridging conversations.