Rachel Peric, executive director of Welcoming America, visits the This Is Civity Podcast to discuss the importance of inclusion in communities, and how government and business leaders can lead the way in taking specific actions to make immigrants feel more welcome.

Photo credit to Welcoming America

CFRA's Jordan Feyerherm & Gladys Godinez join the podcast to discuss the relational and civity nature of the work they do to encourage inclusion and connection in rural U.S. communities.

Library Director Derek Wolfgram and Library Services Supervisor Jenny Barnes talk about the Redwood City Public Library's Human Library, which helps to bridge divides by allowing readers to check out human "books" and have a conversation across difference.

Rabbi David Levinsky is Saidye Bromfman Rabbinical Chair at Temple Har Shalom in Park City, Utah. Nate Bagley is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Utah and host of the Loveumentary podcast, helping people create strong, lasting relationships. Both David and Nate are part of the OneAmerica movement – which seeks to build bridges and solve problems across the socially salient differences that divide us. They focus on bridging divides across religious difference.

Stephanie Lepp, artist, strategist, and producer and host of the Reckonings podcast, discusses how she explores the ways we change hearts and minds, often by recognizing and transforming our own worldviews, assumptions, and biases – how we actually change.

Jud Hendrix is executive director for Lean Into Louisville and project catalyst for the Global Human project. Jud has dedicated his life to encouraging and creating opportunities for engagement across difference. He discusses the importance of reaching across difference to heal communities and forge connections; and the importance of meeting people where they are and doing the work to know yourself, so you can truly know others.

Zach Bell and Ron Towns are co-founders and co-directors of Camp Common Ground. a summer camp that brings racially and economically diverse middle schoolers together to teach them about leadership, social-emotional, and cultural competencies, and how to develop meaningful relationships with each other. Bell & Towns discuss their work and how kids are taking up the effort to build connection across difference.

Kim Roth Howe, founding principal of Co-Creative Labs and TEDx Talk speaker on “Searching for Purple in a Red and Blue Time, was prompted by the 2016 election to devote herself to bringing people in her community together to discuss issues and make connections across difference - building a purple space out of their red and blue views. She discusses her experiences, ups and downs, and triumphs and tribulations in pursuit of this goal.

Acts of dehumanization and humiliation are tools of war and submission. But, the flip side – the impact of offering dignity and acknowledging humanity, is less well studied. Claudia Cohen has coined the phrase everyday dignity to describe small acts that can restore our humanity. Cohen is adjunct faculty at the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia Teachers College, and a founding member of the Summit Interfaith Council Anti-racism Committee and Anti-Racism Community Collaborative in Westfield/Scotch Plains, NJ.

Stuart Chittenden is a lawyer by training, but he began to see the power of empathetic conversation on relationships and even his own outlook on life. He now focuses on building relationships helping people tell their stories and truly hear the stories of others as founder of Squishtalks.

Photo Credit Andrew Marinkovich