Impact Story: Learning to bridge before I had the words for it

Orange County organizer Blandy Morales traces her journey from fighting for community space as a child in Fullerton to building bridges and cultivating belonging in the same neighborhood today.

Impact Story: Power of Bridging in Action

Othering and Belonging Institute’s Bridging for Democracy project, a coalition of grassroots organizations across the country, started listening to people. What they are finding is an antidote to authoritarianism.

Impact Story: Bridging in the biosciences by building a better environment

When Caroline Williams thinks about ecosystems, she doesn’t just picture insects pollinating flowers or birds feeding on seeds. She imagines people—students and faculty, scientists and staff—woven together in networks of support and care. “In an...

Impact Story: Renewing my commitment to the power of connection

Curious to see if the fellowship had the same effect on others in my cohort, I asked five fellows how the program impacted their beliefs, purposes, and futures.

Impact Story: How OBI's conference helped me to tell my story

*Note: The author's name was changed to protect their identity amid the ongoing repression targeting student activists. Gathering is a form of disruption. Being in a space of community and love, you disrupt societal norms that reflect apparatus and...

Impact Story: How Targeted Universalism Is Bringing Equity to Chicago's Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools former equity chief Maurice Swinney explains the transformative power of TU and the importance of listening to our young people

Impact Story: What belonging looks like in data

Co-founder of Conscious Community Connectors, Fatima Elkott shares how OBI's recent North American Equity Data convening has impacted them. This is an excerpt of Elkott's first-person narrative which was initially published in full on May 7 here. I...

Impact Story: How libraries can serve as places of belonging

The calluses and scars on Shamichael Hallman’s hands serve as lasting reminders of the frigid Alabama winters he spent as a 20-year-old logger, cutting and bundling 20-foot cedar logs in a Birmingham lumber yard—timber destined to build homes. “I’d...

Impact Story: Making Democracy Better in Oregon

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- When we first...

Impact Story: Puerto Rico's Energy Insurrection

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- A couple...

Impact Story: From Blaming to Belonging

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- I was...

Impact Story: A Spark of Motivation

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- Employees in...

Impact Story: International Cities of Peace

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- The global...

Impact Story: Healing Through Art

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- I discovered...

Impact Story: Eviction Resolution

Editor's note: This article belongs to our Impact Stories series in which scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and everyday people share their experiences putting OBI's research and principles into action in their communities. -- In the summer...

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E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
Mar
5

Beyond the Divide

Register Now Join the Palo Alto City Library and Stanford University for a free event as part of Silicon Valley Reads' "Bridges to Belonging" program. Experts Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt and john a. powell will explore the roots of bias to...

Our policy on publishing blog & opinion pieces

Consistent with our mission and values, as a multi-disciplinary research center that seeks to advance a world of belonging without othering, the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) conducts research, develops narrative strategy, and supports...