Bonding
No One Talks About This Part: New Parenthood and the Search for Connection
About two-thirds of parents agreed that the demands of parenthood sometimes or frequently feel isolating and lonely, and nearly 4 in 5 would value a way to connect with other parents outside of work and home. I was firmly in this camp.
What I Learned About Early Relational Health in Durham, North Carolina
In February, nearly a hundred parent leaders, funders, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers gathered in Durham, North Carolina to explore how we can collectively support and promote strong, positive, and nurturing relationships between babies and their parents and caregivers.
A 10-Year Look Back and 10 Lessons Learned
As a way of adding punctuation to this anniversary, I want to share the ten lessons I have learned in the last ten years that have shaped my understanding of how we gather, what it takes to spark connection, and how we build on each other’s strengths.
Redefining Fatherhood with Care and Connection
The emotional connection and unconditional love that we fostered in our children’s first years of life remain critical to their health and well-being through adolescence and adulthood.
Guncles, Godmothers, and the Need for More Good Adults In Kid’s Lives
There are few cultural categories or social scripts for village-making and creative kinship after those early meal trains wind down. On the one hand, families are struggling and our kids are suffering. But on the other hand, we have a hidden surplus of potential creative caregiving.
Eight Hanukkah Nights of Nurturing Connection
Even if you do not celebrate Hanukkah, the gift of emotional connection — the reciprocal feeling of being seen, heard, valued, and cared for by loved ones — can be given and received any time of the year.
New Pathways for Equity and Impact in Early Childhood
Our Bonding Strategy Lead Ira Hillman spoke on a panel with Lisa Chamberlain, Ryan Padrez, Tumaini Coker, and Kitty Lopez at the convening to launch Stanford’s new Center on Early Childhood.
The Risks and Rewards of Sharing Power With Your Community
While there is much talk within philanthropy about bringing people with diverse experiences to the table, it’s clear more still needs to be done to ensure that community members are given opportunities for participation and decision making equal to the so-called traditional experts.
Five Principles for Fostering Connection with Children During Times of Transition
During times of transition and challenge, parents and caregivers can regain a sense of calm by embracing adaptability and choosing connection rather than control.
The Path to Regulation and Calming Runs Through Relationships
In a world full of conflict, stress, and distraction, human connection is more than just a pleasant change of pace; it is the biological basis for our capacity to bridge and heal.
Why Curb Cuts and Early Relational Health Go Together
Embracing the concepts of the Curb-Cut Effect and Targeted Universalism helps our Bonding collaboratives succeed.
Bridging Differences in Power and Perspective to Advance Community Change
The Project Manager for Pediatrics Supporting Parents shares insights from Durham Partners for Early Relational Health about co-designing collaborative efforts to transform health care systems, with all stakeholders having a seat at the table.
Leveraging Philanthropic Collaboration to Support Child Development
Meera Mani of The David & Lucile Packard Foundation reflects on five years of collaboration in philanthropy.
Relationships Aren’t Just Good for Babies
Human relationships rooted in emotional connection build the tools of empathy, repair, and healing that are necessary for society to flourish.
How Emotional Expression Overcomes Distractions
Emotional expression by parents orients children and primes them both for autonomic emotional connection, even amidst distractions, stress, and trauma.
Fostering Social and Emotional Health through Pediatric Primary Care: Common Threads to Transform Everyday Practice and Systems
With support from the Pediatrics Supporting Parents (PSP) funder collaborative, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) studied ways that pediatric primary care could promote positive outcomes around social and emotional development, the parent-child relationship, and parents’ mental health. This report synthesizes 3 categories of action and 14 common practices as well as recommendations for systemic reform.
The Science of Relationships
Dr. Martha G. Welch, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, explains that emotional connection between two people is not a mental process alone. It involves “gut brain” signaling cues from the body up to the brain. We learn how to relate starting in the womb, as the mother’s and baby’s bodies influence and regulate each other. Dr. Welch shares research on the neurobiological basis behind relationship formation.
Building Philanthropic Momentum in Early Relational Health
Funders are joining together to support emotional connection for families.
Building Relationships: Framing Early Relational Health
This strategic brief, produced by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) in collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute, offers a comprehensive framing strategy for Early Relational Health (ERH). An expanded focus on early relationships within the child health sector provides a wide-scale opportunity to translate the science about relationships into new practices that can ultimately improve greater population and individual wellbeing.
Calming Cycle Theory
This article in Acta Paediatrica by Martha G. Welch, MD, Director of the Nurture Science Program, explains Calming Cycle Theory. According to this theory, in utero baby and mother establish an emotional connection and visceral/autonomic co‐regulation. After birth, sensory stimulation (such as touch and scent exchange) and emotional communication (such as eye contact and speaking in the mother’s native language) lead to an autonomic response on sensory contact. The result is that mother and infant mutually calm and are attracted to one another.
Healing the Trauma of Premature Birth
Research shows dramatic improvement in preterm babies – and their mothers – who engage in mutual sensory calming and emotional expression.
Advancing Emotional Connection Through Collaboration
Over the past year, the lessons learned about parent-child relationships have informed our collaborative approach to our Bonding strategy.
Human Connection and Human Thriving
A conversation between David Willis. MD and Ira Hillman about the timely opportunity to support the training of family-facing professionals.
Learning to Read at 50
How crucible moments, including the COVID-19 pandemic, help us see our humanity and ourselves in a new light.
Listening on the Road to Change
On the road to transforming systems, we must be guided by those whose lives are most affected by those systems.
Bridging
What 11 Service Year Alums Can Teach Us About America
The Service Year Alums Awards recognize outstanding alumni across the national service community for their contributions during their service years and beyond. This year, we recognize alumni who embraced the lessons, skills, and connections gained during their service year to pursue meaningful careers and positively impact their communities.
Building a Vibrant School Climate and Culture with BridgeUSA
It was clear how committed the BridgeUSA chapter leaders were to this shared experience to make their campuses a little better and healthier than they are now.
Developing the Next Generations of Civic Bridge-Builders with Generation Citizen
"Civics education plays a foundational role in helping us bridge divides in this country," said Elizabeth Clay Roy, CEO of Generation Citizen, in an interview with Einhorn Collaborative.
What Young Leaders Want – And Don’t Want – from Older Allies
Released last month, What Young Leaders Want – And Don't Want – From Older Allies is the first phase of an in-depth study based on conversations with and among 31 remarkable young changemakers committed to working across generational lines to create a better future for future generations.
How Cornellians Can Rise to the Challenge of Our Time
The value of diversity does not come from huddling with your own group. Rather, it comes from engaging with those who are different from you. The whole community benefits when you make that effort to engage.
Why Student Power is the Key to Future Civic Participation
The apathy toward civic engagement isn’t unique, and while I used to be shocked when my classmates or friends felt so unequivocally that politics wasn’t “for them,” I’m now only sad, not surprised.
Civic Education Moves Forward By Working Together
Civic Learning Week is an opportunity to energize this movement and highlight the important role civic education plays in sustaining and strengthening our constitutional democracy by ensuring that each new generation gains the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to become informed and engaged members of our self-governing society.
Welcoming a New Challenge: Reflection on My Tenure & Transition
The past eight-and-a-half years at Einhorn Collaborative have profoundly shaped who I am. This moment of transition allows me to reflect on the gifts and the lessons learned that I’m bringing to my next role.
Investing in Civic Education to Safeguard Our Democracy
The majority of Americans across the political spectrum support more funding to ensure every child receives an adequate civic education, yet over the last twenty years, 44% of school districts reduced how much time educators spend on social studies in elementary schools.
Celebrating New Collaborations to Promote Student Success
Higher education and national service hold a pivotal role in bolstering a collaborative endeavor aimed at achieving its mission of fostering student success.
Developing a Generation of Bridgers
Einhorn Collaborative’s evolving Gen Z strategy
City Year & Cornell: Evaluating Impact Outcomes in Partnership
How the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement at Cornell University and City Year are working together to learn how their programs foster civic and community participation, collaboration, and career readiness.
Relationships: What Young People Need to Thrive
The wellbeing of young people depends on their access to relationship-rich environments
Change Research Survey
During the Spring of 2021, Einhorn Collaborative commissioned a nationally representative study of 18-26-year-olds to understand their interest in various types of service and advocacy activities.
What I’ve Learned Along the Way
Karen Murphy, PhD, is the CEO of the Human Responsibility Accelerator, a new organization that is being launched by the High Resolves Group.
Foundations for Young Adult Success
This comprehensive report offers wide-ranging evidence to show what young people need to develop from preschool to young adulthood to succeed in college and career, have healthy relationships, be engaged citizens, and make wise choices. It concludes that rich experiences combining action and reflection supported by consistent, supportive relationships help children develop a set of critical skills, attitudes, and behaviors.
The Future of Community-Engaged Learning
Cornell University and Einhorn Collaborative mark a milestone of partnership in community-engaged learning.
The Power of Service-Learning
What happens when students engage with their communities?
The Hill We Climb
Celebrating the extraordinary perspective and leadership of inaugural poet Amanda Gorman
Bridging to a Better Future
How can we support a generation of young leaders to repair, rebuild, and heal our communities and country?
Building
A Framework to Strengthen Community Connection
Fostering connection within communities demands civic, cultural, and policy change. But what actions can government take to make this a reality?
Questions as a Doorway to Reducing Divisions
Even ardent proponents would agree that dialogue alone is not the antidote to toxic polarization or creeping authoritarianism. Yet, the coverage and commentary about dialogue as a facet of bridging work are incomplete.
Building Connected Communities: Seven Reflections for the Shared Work Ahead
Those of us focused on strengthening connection and ameliorating the effects of loneliness and isolation must widen the aperture by finding common cause with people working to solve adjacent but overlapping challenges.
A Wake-Up Call on the Importance of Social Connection
With a new advisory released in May, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is sounding the alarm about an issue that requires urgent, broad-based action: loneliness and social isolation.
Inspiration to Bridge Differences
While the animating idea behind Team Up is simple – shared service can bridge divides – the substance of the work is complex, and a challenge that constantly evolves depending on the context.
A Call to Think Big and Bold About Our Future
It is easy to see how a gloomy outlook on the country and a cynical view of humanity conspire to stifle our collective imagination. Yet that capacity to envision and work toward better futures is most needed in times of upheaval and rapid change; that is, now.
Philanthropy in Action: Local to Global
Our Building Strategy Lead Jonathan Gruber spoke on a panel with New Pluralists' Executive Director Uma Viswanathan and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Senior Program Officer Sharon Roerty at the Foundation for Social Connection's 2022 End Social Isolation and Loneliness Action Forum.
All the Lonely People: Why Americans’ Isolation Is a Threat to Our Democracy
In addition to toxic polarization, threats of political violence, the divisive effects of social media, and other oft-cited forces – loneliness is a lesser-known factor that subverts democracy.
Bridging in Action: A Relationship Forged Through Shared Work
Our Building Strategy Lead Jon Gruber and Sarah Ruger of Stand Together, who work closely as funder co-leads of New Pluralists, recently sat down to reflect on their partnership one year into the launch of the collaborative.
Stretching towards Hope in 2022
2021 brought forth many of the same challenges we’d already been grappling with as a country, along with new ones. Social upheaval, political unrest, and the continued impact of the pandemic aggravate our existing fear, anxiety, and loneliness.
We Can Relate: A primer on why and how we should invest in connection
A Call to Connection weaves together science, ancient wisdom, vivid stories, and concrete practices.
The Hidden Tribes of America
This report from More In Common, published in 2018, explores the forces behind political polarization in the U.S. The report asserts that, rather than two overarching groups, Americans are split across seven distinct tribes based on what they believe. Four of these tribes make up the Exhausted Majority.
The Challenge of Caring for Others Across Difference
A Data-driven Look at the State of Caring in America
What Does January 6 Mean for Bridgebuilders?
A new bipartisan bill has infused energy into an emerging network of people working to bridge divides in a polarized nation.
Our Shared Humanity: What Is It and How Can We See It?
There are varied conceptions of shared humanity, yet research offers clear guidance on how we can better appreciate it.
Opening Your Mind and Getting Curious
When we temper certainty with curiosity, we see the people and ideas we encounter more vividly.
A Sobering Snapshot of Distrust in America
A new report from More In Common explains how a declining level of trust threatens the health of American democracy.
The Hopeful Buds of Pluralism in the Garden of Democracy
How do we transcend our differences to build the future we all dream of?
Centering Field Leaders in Field Building
Strengthening the growing field of pluralism with those leading the work.
Addressing America’s Loneliness Pandemic
A recent study of Americans shows a rise in loneliness, especially among young people and mothers of small children.
Evolving Our Understanding of Community
A new report explores the changing dynamics and direction of American community
Building a Culture of Connection
Nine pieces of practical wisdom from field leaders for building a culture of connection, bridging, and belonging
Seeing Each Other Through Stories
In order to see each other in ways that transcend caricatures and stereotypes, we need the humanizing power of stories.
Telling a New Story of Us
To strengthen connection and belonging in America, we need stories and experiences that touch the heart, stir the soul, and move us to act.
Other
No Greater Mission. No Greater Means.
New research by the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution examines how national service and the bridgebuilding community can help build bridges across polarized lines of difference, increasing trust and collaboration across our divides.
Americans Deserve the Full Story
A new study conducted by Starts With Us, the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, and Common Ground Committee found that hyper-partisan politicians received more than four times the news coverage bipartisan problem solvers did around the 2022 midterm elections.
The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in America
Belonging is vital to our individual and societal health, but it can be notoriously difficult to measure. The Belonging Barometer report, recently released by Over Zero and the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council, provides a first-of-its-kind measure of belonging that is robust, accessible, and readily deployable in efforts to strengthen community resilience and social cohesion. It also shares findings from a national survey to give a baseline snapshot of the state of belonging in our country.
Social Connection Report: The Ties That Bind and Nurture
For parents, the nature and strength of their social connections are key determinants of their health and well-being, and in turn, their children’s development. New research, commissioned by Capita with support from Reach Out and Read Carolinas, draws attention to important issues facing parents of young children in North Carolina, including loneliness, social isolation, and lack of parental support. The findings aim to guide approaches to strengthen social connectedness for parents across age cohorts and around the country.
Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy
The power of our imagination has an impact on the state and direction of our democracy. Having positive visions of our shared future can give us a sense of agency and motivate us to work together to achieve mutually beneficial societal outcomes. The “Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy” report, a collaboration between Suzette Brooks Masters and the Democracy Funders Network, offers insights into the value of positive visioning, challenges to imagining better futures, and how we can overcome them.
The Effects of Community-Based Engagement in Higher Education
Findings from a recent study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities indicate that community-engaged learning and civic engagement have positive impacts on students in six key areas, including personal and social responsibility, development of positive mindsets and dispositions, graduation and retention rates, learning gains, intellectual and practical skills, and career-related skills. However, more direct assessments of students' demonstrated skills are needed to complement what we know about these outcomes based on self-reported data.
How Gen Z Sees Themselves and Their Future
Gen Z is considered to be the most ethnically and racially diverse generation in American history. So, what are their goals for the next stage of their personal and professional lives? What do they expect from older generations, institutions, and society at large? Check out the new research by Murmuration and the Walton Family Foundation to learn more about Gen Z’s values, priorities, political activity, and interests.
Civic Language Perception Project
Informed by a nationally representative survey of 5,000 Americans, PACE’s Civic Language Perceptions Project seeks to understand people's perceptions of the language associated with civic engagement and democracy work.
Releasing the Potential of Philanthropic Collaborations
Over the past decade, philanthropic collaboration has entered a new era of popularity and ambition. Driven by institutional and high-net-worth funders seeking greater impact by acting collectively and by leaders challenging traditional ways of working, the number of collaborative giving platforms has grown. With over $2 billion flowing annually to funder collaboratives working on a range of social, economic, and environmental issues—and that’s just from the funds who responded to the survey—The Bridgespan Group’s recent study sheds light on the changing landscape of these philanthropic partnerships.
Change Research Survey
During the Spring of 2021, Einhorn Collaborative commissioned a nationally representative study of 18-26-year-olds to understand their interest in various types of service and advocacy activities.
Good Medicine For Healthy Child Development: Nurturing Relationships
In the United States today, some 27,000 pediatricians provide care to 24 million children under the age of six. Many pediatric practitioners are overburdened
Emotional Connection
The Nurture Science Program (NSP) at Columbia University Medical Center focuses on a new, evidence-based understanding of the critical role emotional connection plays in healthy child development. Emotional connection describes a mutually positive nurturing relationship between parent and child that is crucial to modulating and regulating emotions, learning, and behavior.
Untethered: A Primer on Social Isolation
Untethered provides a cogent overview of the causes, consequences, and varieties of social isolation, weaving together insights from a range of disciplines. The primer also describes a variety of domains in which constructive and creative action is taking shape, including the built environment, technology, and civic engagement.
Friendships Matter: The Role of Peer Relationships in Interfaith Learning and Development
This report highlights the impact close interworldview friendships have on interfaith learning and development and provides recommendations on how to structure collegiate experiences to prepare graduates who are able to constructively engage in our religiously diverse democracy.
Fostering Social and Emotional Health through Pediatric Primary Care: Common Threads to Transform Everyday Practice and Systems
With support from the Pediatrics Supporting Parents (PSP) funder collaborative, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) studied ways that pediatric primary care could promote positive outcomes around social and emotional development, the parent-child relationship, and parents’ mental health. This report synthesizes 3 categories of action and 14 common practices as well as recommendations for systemic reform.
The Science of Relationships
Dr. Martha G. Welch, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, explains that emotional connection between two people is not a mental process alone. It involves “gut brain” signaling cues from the body up to the brain. We learn how to relate starting in the womb, as the mother’s and baby’s bodies influence and regulate each other. Dr. Welch shares research on the neurobiological basis behind relationship formation.
The Hidden Tribes of America
This report from More In Common, published in 2018, explores the forces behind political polarization in the U.S. The report asserts that, rather than two overarching groups, Americans are split across seven distinct tribes based on what they believe. Four of these tribes make up the Exhausted Majority.
Building Relationships: Framing Early Relational Health
This strategic brief, produced by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) in collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute, offers a comprehensive framing strategy for Early Relational Health (ERH). An expanded focus on early relationships within the child health sector provides a wide-scale opportunity to translate the science about relationships into new practices that can ultimately improve greater population and individual wellbeing.
Calming Cycle Theory
This article in Acta Paediatrica by Martha G. Welch, MD, Director of the Nurture Science Program, explains Calming Cycle Theory. According to this theory, in utero baby and mother establish an emotional connection and visceral/autonomic co‐regulation. After birth, sensory stimulation (such as touch and scent exchange) and emotional communication (such as eye contact and speaking in the mother’s native language) lead to an autonomic response on sensory contact. The result is that mother and infant mutually calm and are attracted to one another.
Foundations for Young Adult Success
This comprehensive report offers wide-ranging evidence to show what young people need to develop from preschool to young adulthood to succeed in college and career, have healthy relationships, be engaged citizens, and make wise choices. It concludes that rich experiences combining action and reflection supported by consistent, supportive relationships help children develop a set of critical skills, attitudes, and behaviors.
Do Americans Really Care For Each Other? What Unites Us—And What Divides Us
This report from Making Caring Common, published in 2021, offers a data-driven overview of the state of caring in America. There are hopeful and disconcerting findings. Americans value caring, engage in caring acts, and feel connected across the political divide, but most people don’t engage in “harder forms of caring”.
Preventing Childhood Toxic Stress: Partnering With Families and Communities to Promote Relational Health
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issues a strong, unequivocal statement calling for the incorporation of a strengths-based relational health framework into pediatric care as a new approach to addressing childhood toxic stress.
