Paths to Understanding frames political violence as emerging from eroded trust and dehumanization long before physical conflict, driven by narratives that portray what people love as threatened by other groups. To counter this “shrinking belonging,” the organization brings people together through shared human identities—not partisan labels—using programs like the Potluck Project and Let’s Go Together to rebuild trust, reduce fear, and strengthen both “belonging” and “civic muscle.” Their framework highlights how individuals often defend group belonging rather than ideas, especially when political identity has cost them relationships, which can intensify polarization. This approach aligns with NCDD’s mission by showing how intentional dialogue and relationship-building can interrupt dehumanization, address root causes of political conflict, and expand the sense of a shared “we.”

​The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation partnered with the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office to produce “Leading Polarizing Conversations: Facilitation Guide,” a 45-page resource by NCDD Executive Director Keiva Hummel and Director Emeritus Courtney Breese. It provides libraries with practical tools for convening community conversations on divisive issues through planning, conversation design, facilitation best practices, and follow-up strategies. The guide integrates NCDD frameworks, including the Engagement Streams Framework, to help facilitators clarify conversation purpose and address challenges like distinguishing productive discomfort from harm, navigating misinformation, maintaining impartiality, and establishing group agreements for psychological safety. NCDD’s collaboration with ALA extends dialogue and deliberation practice to a trusted civic institution, encouraging libraries to access NCDD’s public member map for co-facilitation support and recognizing the emotional labor of facilitation through grounding techniques and self-care practices, especially for libraries with limited capacity. This project advances NCDD’s mission by positioning libraries as civic institutions that strengthen community resilience through structured dialogue, demonstrating how NCDD’s practices help model respectful engagement across divides, inspire listening and empathy, counteract echo chambers, strengthen civic trust, and provide templates for other institutions navigating polarization.

​Essential Partners facilitated the Bridging the Divide on Firearm Policy initiative, where 23 gun rights and gun safety advocates created a comprehensive state-level model gun policy to reduce gun violence while protecting constitutional and due process rights. Directed by Dr. Michael Siegel from Tufts University School of Medicine, the initiative brought gun owners and non-gun owners together to develop balanced, evidence-based policies on background checks, extreme risk protection orders, dealer regulation, suicide prevention, secure storage, safety education, and community violence intervention. The 67-page policy package at BridgeTheDivideNow.org demonstrates that Americans can solve hard problems by listening and seeing each other as neighbors with real experiences, rather than adversaries in zero-sum political battles. This initiative advances NCDD’s mission by showing how structured facilitation creates conditions for groups with deep ideological differences to find common ground on contentious policy issues, offering a model for collaborative problem-solving that transcends polarization through focusing on practical solutions, building trust, and committing to data-driven approaches.

​More in Common US released focus group findings with “Reluctant Right” voters, the least ideological and most ambivalent fifth of Trump’s 2024 coalition, revealing nuanced perspectives on immigration enforcement. These voters criticize extreme tactics while supporting restrictive approaches and distinguish between Trump and ICE accountability. The research identifies four themes: losing faith in enforcement tactics while supporting Trump, trusting bipartisanship, advocating for reforming ICE due to concerns about hiring standards and training, and pervasive low trust in media and institutions creating uncertainty about competing narratives. This research positions the Reluctant Right as a signal for Trump coalition stability and demonstrates how qualitative methods reveal complexity often missed by polling. It advances NCDD’s mission by helping Americans understand perspectives across partisan divides, identifying potential areas for bipartisan solutions, and modeling research approaches that surface nuance, ambivalence, and complexity essential for bridging divides and developing democratic solutions grounded in diverse voter thinking.

​News Ambassadors offers a public Depolarization Strategies training on March 10, 2026. It teaches the Complicating the Narratives method, developed by Amanda Ripley and Hélène Biandudi Hofer, which applies conflict mediation psychology to move beyond us-versus-them narratives. Led by accredited trainer Shia Levitt, the virtual training translates methods for journalists into tools for deeper listening and effective communication in polarizing times. Offered on a sliding scale, it subsidizes costs for journalism students and newsrooms while making depolarization strategies accessible to broader audiences. This training advances NCDD’s mission by providing practitioners with methods to challenge polarization through listening, problem framing, complexity engagement, and bias examination, equipping them to facilitate constructive dialogue across differences.

​The National Civic League’s Winter 2026 National Civic Review examines how local democracy is evolving amid declining trust, polarization, and rapid technological change. The issue highlights bridging institutions, dialogue models in divided schools, redesigns of local government to prioritize equity and participation, and community foundations’ role in sustaining engagement. It also considers AI’s promise and risks, lessons from anti-corruption socialist mayors, and reflections on governance reforms in Portland. The publication advances participatory democracy by sharing innovations and equipping practitioners to foster inclusive, responsive local governance.

​Samantha Noland, a Silver Spring filmmaker and civic educator, has founded Young Folks of Kemp Mill, a grassroots initiative building community among Jewish young professionals through Shabbat dinners, cultural events, and interfaith gatherings that bridge Orthodox, Conservative, and secular communities in her Maryland neighborhood. As a Shabbat Clusters coordinator with the Edlavitch DCJCC since 2022 and recent program instructor at Close Up Foundation teaching civil discourse, Noland applies relationship-building practices across multiple contexts—creating belonging in transient urban environments, exploring identity and acceptance through filmmaking, and equipping students with dialogue skills for navigating political differences. Her work emphasizes that regular gatherings and authentic connection across religious and cultural boundaries build the relational infrastructure necessary for democratic participation, addressing social isolation and polarization through community-level engagement. This grassroots organizing advances NCDD's mission by demonstrating how practitioners strengthen civic life through sustained relationship-building, bridge-building across difference, and creating spaces where diverse individuals develop the trust and empathy necessary for collaborative problem-solving and democratic resilience.

​The Horizons Project and the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley have launched "Democracy & Belonging: Learning Across the Atlantic," a podcast series featuring conversations with organizers and movement builders in the United States and Europe who explore relational and embodied practices for strengthening democracy amid rising authoritarianism and polarization. Episodes address tensions central to bridge-building work, including how to balance political commitments with fostering shared humanity, navigate power dynamics while building trust across difference, and sustain movements through practices of care, collective sense-making, and somatic resilience. The series emphasizes that democratic engagement requires transformation of institutional containers themselves, not just transactional inclusion, and that meaningful change emerges through relationship, vulnerability, and everyday encounters rather than solely through policy advocacy. This transatlantic exchange advances NCDD's mission by offering dialogue practitioners insights into navigating emotional labor, addressing structural exclusion, and cultivating the relational infrastructure necessary for countering democratic degradation while advancing belonging for marginalized communities.

​Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) is releasing new findings from its 2025 Civic Language Perceptions Project during a national webinar on February 27, 2026, presenting multi-year research on how Americans across political, demographic, and geographic divides understand civic and democratic language. The project surveys thousands of voters to examine which terms have "bridgeyness" potential to unite diverse audiences and which inadvertently signal exclusion or partisan allegiance, providing evidence-based guidance for practitioners seeking to engage broad communities without triggering defensive reactions. The webinar will introduce an updated interactive dashboard with approximately 500 data visualizations, a refreshed guide on strategic language use, and new research on how people make sense of democracy and perceived threats to it in a high-stakes political moment. This work advances NCDD's mission by illuminating how word choices shape who feels invited into civic conversation, offering dialogue practitioners and organizers practical tools to prioritize connection and inclusivity through strategic communication that builds bridges rather than reinforcing division.

​Braver Angels, a national organization dedicated to reducing political polarization through skill-building and collaborative action, addresses the personal toll of division through its Families and Politics workshop, which focuses on repairing and sustaining family relationships strained by political conflict. Grounded in the organization’s commitment to courageous citizenship and equal representation of Red and Blue perspectives, the workshop helps participants understand why family political disagreements are uniquely challenging, recognize common conversational roles, and develop practical strategies for navigating conflict without sacrificing deeply held values. By combining humor, empathy, and concrete tools, the program highlights how polarization operates within intimate relationships and demonstrates how targeted skill-building can preserve family bonds while supporting healthier civic engagement and community trust.