Civic Engagement
One Nation partners with community foundations in cities across America to create locally focused civic engagement programs that connect Americans of all backgrounds to build and strengthen their communities together.
America has a proud and storied tradition of concerned individuals organizing and rising to meet challenges of common concern. The collaborative process of Americans coming together around shared values to pursue common goals creates opportunities for learning and bridge-building.
One Nation believes that when American Muslims join their neighbors and members of their broader society to invest in the collective success of all (through better schools, job creation, accessible healthcare, healthier environments), prejudicial attitudes fuelled by misperceptions dissipate while trust and goodwill grow.
Two Strategic Aims
1. Local collaboration through civic engagement to increase respect, cooperation and understanding among diverse communities
CHICAGO MODEL | One Chicago, One Nation
One Nation partnered in 2009 with The Chicago Community Trust, Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) and Link TV to develop a civic engagement program in Chicago called One Chicago, One Nation. Supported by the One Chicago, One Nation Fund in The Chicago Community Trust, and now in its second year, the program connects diverse communities through digital storytelling, community conversations, leadership development and mini-grants to build and sustain innovative interfaith and cross-cultural service projects that address shared community challenges across Chicago.
One Chicago, One Nation in the press:
New York Times
NYC MODEL | One NYC, One Nation
Launched in the Spring of 2011 by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, One NYC, One Nation is a New York City civic engaegment initiative developed through a partnership among One Nation, The New York Community Trust and the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. The initaitive is supported by the One NYC, One Nation Fund in The New York Community Trust. The program aims to strengthen, empower and build relationships between newly-arrived immigrant communities and New York City's broader community through civic leadership training, financial literacy education and bridge-building programs that encourage New Yorkers to interact with each other, learn from each other, and work together at the neighborhood level to make their community more than the sum of its parts.
One NYC, One Nation in the press:
New York Times
2. Leveraging established national organizations to build upon their work and reach to increase service learning through civic engagement
MODEL | “Under One Roof” Interfaith Home Building
One Nation is working with Habitat for Humanity to leverage the organization’s convening platform of building homes for low-income families and extensive volunteer networks. This model seeks to 1) Expand interfaith cooperation and service learning through home building, 2) Construct environmentally sustainable homes and 3) Build homes in clusters to create neighborhoods inhabited by diverse families that work collaboratively for the common good.
