Working with partners and peers to help everyone see our humanity in a new light
What we do and how we do it is intentionally and inextricably linked. Our work with partners and peers unites a shared vision of human connection with a commitment to the principles and practice of collaboration and mutuality. We listen to and embrace the views and perspectives of a wide range of actors, knowing that we will enable more positive change in the world if we understand where others are coming from and by doing the work together. And we know the work is never done. It is always a work in progress, sitting alongside our partners and peers, to learn, evolve, and grow together.
Bonding
Developing our capacity to form and maintain healthy relationships by establishing emotional connection in the earliest years of life.
Partner Collaborative
SPREADING EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
Building upon the groundbreaking research of the Nurture Science Program at Columbia University Medical Center, we are collaborating with partners who recognize the critical role emotional connection plays in healthy child development and commit to spreading nurture-based research with measures, tools, and practices so more families are emotionally connected in the earliest years of life.
Funder Collaborative
ENHANCING STANDARDS OF CARE
Pediatrics Supporting Parents is an initiative focused on leveraging pediatric well-visits as an opportunity to promote and support children’s social and emotional development and nurturing parent-child relationships.
In collaboration with: W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Perigee Fund, J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, and an anonymous individual contributor.
Bridging
Photo Credit: Lily-Anne Trainor
Reinforcing our ability to understand ourselves and each other, and positively relate across difference, with a focus on providing adolescents with experiences to develop lifelong skills of perspective-taking and bridge-building.
Partner Collaborative
ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING
Cornell University’s David M. Einhorn Center is leading a university-wide initiative that seeks to embed community-engaged learning into traditionally siloed academic and co-curricular experiences of every undergraduate across multiple colleges and campus life units. Through high-quality community engagement and critical reflection, Cornell graduates are advancing the Engaged Cornell ethos as they become educated global citizens who practice respect and empathy, seek collaboration and cooperation, and embrace differences and diversity in all aspects of their lives.
Partner Collaborative
MOBILIZING GEN Z TO BECOME BRIDGERS
We are interested in developing a collaborative with partners to nurture and support young people’s interest and ability to engage as active citizens, form positive relationships across difference, and proactively help America heal, repair, and rebuild. Read our Bridging reflection for our latest thinking and check back for updates in 2022.
Building
Building a more relational and pluralist culture in America to help people prioritize human connection, see our shared humanity, and embrace our differences.
Funder Collaborative
STRENGTHENING A CULTURE OF PLURALISM
New Pluralists is a funder collaborative focused on supporting the growing field of practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and innovators working to foster a culture of pluralism in America. The collaborative is committed to the vital work of healing our divisions by helping Americans recognize our shared humanity, embrace our differences, and solve challenges together.
New Pluralists is committed to nurturing relationships and building connective tissue and infrastructure across the field. We will do that by funding experimentation, collaboration, research, and the creation of practical resources. We are also committed to sharing what we learn along the way.
Read more about the history of this effort from our Executive Director Jenn Hoos Rothberg here.
Read more about the New Pluralist Field Builders from our Building Lead Jonathan Gruber here.
Discrete Project Investments
ELEVATING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS
In our direct investments, we are focused on exploring a few approaches to building a more relational culture: case-making that lifts up the science of relationships and connection, storytelling that amplifies humanizing stories, and direct experiences that enable people to connect in deep, sustained ways. We are anchoring our near-term investments in specific learning questions, such as:
How might we weave together science and storytelling in ways that help people embrace relationships as core to what they do?
To what extent do compelling, humanizing stories foster greater hope, empathy, and a sense of connection to those who are different?
What practices and tools are effective in helping people find connection, build community, and embrace collective rituals in this moment of acute disconnection?
We work in close partnership with grantees to reflect on insights that emerge in response to these questions. As in each of our focus areas, our longer-term goal is to work toward collaboration across multiple partners to advance this aspect of our Building work.
