13 Ways to Team Up and Build Connections
Date: October 1, 2024
October is National Diversity Awareness Month. At the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive regardless of background.
In 2024, YMCA of the USA joined fellow nonprofits Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity and Interfaith America to launch the Team Up Project. The Team Up Project is invested in the power of connection to bridge divides, to cultivate cooperation across differences and to create a brighter future for our communities and our nation.
The Central Connecticut Coast YMCA is committed to building bridges right here in our community and will celebrate our differences and shared values beyond the month of October. Check out 13 ways below that you can team up with the Y and help create unity!*
- Introduce yourself to one of your neighbors who you don’t know.
- Ask a friend to clean up trash at a local park with you. Afterwards, talk about why each of you serve.
- Attend a local event through Citizen Connect.
- Visit a faith community that is not your personal faith, learn about their values and practices.
- Attend a community program at your local YMCA you haven’t yet attended.
- Ask a friend or neighbor how they feel about a hot topic issue in your community. Listen to one another with the intention to simply understand the person’s perspective.
- Get a group of folks together to serve at a food pantry or through Weavers Network. Figure out at least one thing you all have in common and at least one way you all differ.
- Write and send a thank you note to someone in your personal life who you have witnessed teaming up with someone different than them to do good.
- Find the closest Habitat for Humanity chapter and volunteer at a build day.
- Volunteer as a poll worker. Ask another poll worker what motivates them to strengthen democracy and share your perspective.
- Attend an event or book club at your local library, share your life with others and listen to their experience of your community.
- Invite a group you’re a part of (a political group, sports team, faith community, book club) to partner with a group with a different perspective and get to know each other better.
- Contact your local Catholic Charities to see what they most need from volunteers. See if you and a neighbor can help meet that need.
*Shared from teamupproject.org