We hope this and more conversations will help foundations and donors advance the practice of building civic culture across the country.

know i started the institute when i was 27 years old which was about 38 years ago now and our work has spread to all 50 states and and 40 countries and we live at a time where things seem to be separating more and more we're more divided it's harder to create the kind of change that we all want so in essence what the institute's about is how do we build bridges to bridge divides at a time when we seem to be separating? How is it that we can create a culture of shared responsibility in communities when sharing things and a notion of responsibility are becoming harder and harder to come by? And how do we make community a common enterprise where we're all moving in a common direction, marshalling our shared resources? And in particular, what I'm interested in is How is it that we can address what truly matters to people in communities and at the very same time, strengthen the civic culture of our communities in order to move forward? What I've found over 40 years of doing this work is the biggest predictor of whether or not communities move forward is their civic culture, how we come together, how we work together, how we get things done together.

And so I think that's a really important focus, particularly at this time in American history.

I think some of the conditions that we continually bump into include that the community operates in silos in a highly fragmented way, that many organizations want to get things done, but there aren't enough spaces.

They get together, but there isn't a culture necessarily of how to work together, how to have the hard conversations, how to figure out where there's redundancy and duplication of efforts, how to figure out how to have a shared purpose among different organizations.

By and large, people in communities do not feel that there are enough places, spaces and ways in which to have authentic community conversations where the community itself can express what matters to them, not just simply their problems, but their shared aspirations for moving forward.

There are leaders who tend to be turned inward toward change.

You

So can you just share, enlighten us about, no, no, no, my community is unique.

Well, look, I mean, we're with the Patterson Foundation working in DeSoto County, very rural, very resilient, but has not fully embraced or is now just fully embracing the notion that they can thrive.

Alamance County, North Carolina, probably the most divisive place I've worked in in 40 years, a different set of challenges.

Redding, Pennsylvania declared the poorest community in America 10 years ago, a different set of challenges.

But to your point, you know, when you close your eyes and listen to folks, when you hear what really matters to them, when you hear what it is that they're yearning for in their lives and for their communities, it's all the same.

We all want a sense of decency.

We all want our dignity upheld.

What is that?

So getting back to that question, what what did actually save you as a child?

Well, what saved me was, first of all, for those who are listening, when I was born, I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

In 1960, that was a death sentence.

My family was told I had three to five years to live.

There was a point at which a doctor turned to my young mother, my struggling young mother, and said, face it, he's a lemon.

I grew up much of my youth and a good portion of my adulthood in hospital beds.

I have really vivid memories, Corey, of all the doctors, nurses, and specialists surrounding my bed talking about me, never talking with me.

And even as a little kid, I got a sense of, oh, this is our community, not just... uh my friends from from shul but you know my goyisha friends who came out to paint and clean up um and even some of the brothers of the family because the kid was already arrested um so he couldn't come out but his brothers were out there and that was um talk about getting your hands dirty getting dirt under your fingernails that was a way for us to see each other and be with each other you know what i mean

I love that.

Yeah.

So it was a man named Mr. Rivers.

He...

Had a seasonal job at the time.

I grew up in New York City and then we moved to upstate New York.

Three blocks from my house was the oldest racetrack, thoroughbred racetrack in America, Saratoga Racecourse.

But like what were what was the impetus to to start your own thing? And then here we are 40 years later that you're still still doing the good work or.