“The kind of project we’re going to be watching.” - Judy Woodruff, host of PBS NewsHour’s “America at a Crossroads” in discussing the Harwood initiative in Alamance County, NC

Harwood’s Annual Summit - “Begin”

“This time together is sort of like chamomile tea for the soul… but with caffeine.” - Robert Langford, Executive Director, Operation Shoestring

Earlier this month, over 40 community leaders from across the United States gathered in Richmond, VA, for our annual Harwood Summit. At this year’s Summit, we delved into intimate discussions to help us better understand the deep challenges before us and how each of us can contribute to moving forward.

As one attendee noted, “There's something so beautiful and powerful and ironic about participating in a summit focused on building a more just, caring, engaged civil society, and having that meeting occur in the former capital of the Confederacy at what was essentially a former museum to the Confederacy. I want more of this kind of thing!”

Each year, we center the Summit on a word. This year, it was “Begin,” which served as a jumping off point for in-depth, provocative discussions about what it means to begin in the face of such daunting challenges in this country. What it looks like to honor and build upon the past as we begin again. And what it means to choose hope, a prerequisite as we look to begin the work we must do together.

To close out this year’s Summit, we asked attendees to wrestle with Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again.” While reflecting on Hughes’ charge, attendees created a personal covenant to guide their efforts moving into 2025. Consider creating a covenant for yourself by downloading this resource.

Download and create a personal covenant

Community Initiatives Making Progress

Our community initiatives are making exciting progress at a moment in America where hope feels hard to come by. Two examples:

Reading, PA, where we just held a workspace and released a ripple effect report. This report is a snapshot of the systemic change the people of Reading have created in just a few short years through our work together. Real, tangible actions have been taken on a host of seemingly intractable challenges—from mental health to language barriers to a lack of access to early childhood education services. As one community leader noted, “This work with Harwood has fundamentally transformed our civic culture by changing how organizations work together.”
Logan and Union Counties in Ohio, where we just held an Unleashing Impact Public Innovators Lab to build on and accelerate the exciting progress the community has made throughout 2024. Action teams are focused on healthcare, youth opportunity, and senior care, among other things. One 20-something-year-old man in Logan County noted, “People are realizing that we’re finally addressing underlying challenges we’ve been dealing with for years and it’s helping us get someplace new.”

These initiatives in Pennsylvania and Ohio are part of our larger work to prove Americans have the public will and ability to address society’s fault lines by coming together to get things done. We’re also working deeply in DeSoto County, FL; Owensboro, KY; and Alamance County, NC. Individually, these communities represent the different divides in society today. Collectively, they demonstrate our innate capacities to change how we work together and create a new trajectory of hope by applying the Harwood approach.

Learn more about our community initiatives

Acclaimed PBS Journalist Judy Woodruff Namedrops Harwood

Acclaimed journalist Judy Woodruff, host of the PBS NewsHour’s “America at a Crossroads” series, recently recorded a podcast episode with the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The discussion focused on what Woodruff has learned through her series about how the country can move forward amid our real divides. At one point, the podcaster asked her, “Is there [an initiative] that you particularly want to celebrate so that we can see that there are things that are working?”

Straightaway, Woodruff noted, “We know that there are communities where groups have made headway. I want to mention Alamance County, NC, where a group called The Harwood Institute has been invited in to help this formerly completely rural county, which is now rapidly changing to become a more urban area with housing challenges, immigration challenges, economic challenges, helping the members of the community deal with this—and they are making progress. They at least are getting people to sit around the table together. They’re very much on the front end of this.”

Woodruff continued: “I interviewed Rich Harwood, who’s the head of that program. And I think that there’s, certainly—you have to give them credit for going in there—because people have strong feelings on either side. But they’re jumping in. They’re rolling up their sleeves and working at it. And I think that’s the kind of project that we’re going to be watching.”

Watch Harwood’s Segment on “America at a Crossroads”

Outrage Overload Podcast Appearance

“Rich offered a fresh perspective on how we can rebuild trust, foster collaboration, and create real change.” - David Beckemeyer, Host of the Outrage Overload podcast

Rich recently recorded an episode of the Outrage Overload podcast, where he challenged conventional wisdom that polarization is the root cause of America’s divisions. The wide-ranging conversation covered insights from our report Civic Virus: Why Polarization is a Misdiagnosis, to stories and strategies from Rich’s decades of work in communities across the country, to what Rich discovered while running our national civic campaign this past year.

Listen to Rich on the Outrage Overload Podcast

What Can Solve Our Crisis of Belief?

The stark divisions surrounding the recent presidential election are still with us, and will be for some time. As Rich noted at our recent virtual event, we have a crisis of belief in this country that goes much deeper than any single election.

Meeting this moment demands a response that starts in our local communities. And the Harwood initiative in Reading, PA, a community that drew so much attention in the final days before the November election as a battleground city in a battleground state, offers a window into how we address this fundamental issue in society today.

Read Rich’s Latest in The Fulcrum

Helping the Nation Grow

Harwood’s Studio on Community is our hub for innovation and thinking. Over the fall, we were honored to have Harrison Stoneking serve as a Studio Associate. Harrison is now headed back to Ohio State University to finish his senior year and is applying to law school where he hopes to specialize in labor law.

As his time with us came to a close, Harrison wrote a reflection on what he learned with the Institute and how our work challenged him to view public life differently. He noted, “I hope that the teachings I have gained from the Institute will help me work to create a better world and help the nation grow, rather than regress.”

Read Harrison’s Full REflection