2026 Bridge-Building Innovation Awards
About the Awards
On September 23rd, 2026--together with American Public Square in Kansas City, Missouri--partners of the Listen First Coalition are delighted to feature the Bridge Building Innovation Awards as part of the 2nd Annual Bridging Movement Summit.
The Awards will be presented at the opening event of the Summit, in the evening on September 23rd in the beautiful _________ theater. Teams of community members from different parts of America will be celebrated for the innovative work they are doing locally to bring people together across differences to rebuild trust and collaboratively address issues dividing their communities.
The opening event will also feature a panel of esteemed leaders brought together by American Public Square to discuss the "trust recession" in America and the importance of rebuilding trust in an era defined by outrage, misinformation, and institutional skepticism.
Needham Resilience Network (Winners of 2025 Bridge Building Innovation Awards)
You are eligible to apply if...
You are part of a team of at least 5 Americans working across generational, racial, ideological, and/or other key differences to…
Rebuild trust and sSolve problems…
Where you live…
Outside of your primary employment!
Are you coming together across differences to solve problems in your community?
Would you like to share your team’s awesome work with the rest of our country and have fun in the process?
What is the Value?
Give you and your team of community members a platform to showcase the concrete initiatives you’re taking to strengthen your community and the relationships you’ve built across divides through the process.
Receive an Award for your achievements, presented by Listen First Project
Inspire Americans not involved in these types of efforts to get involved in problem-solving across differences and maybe even join your effort!
Prizes for teams selected for the Showcase
Have your work showcased on stage at __________ in Kansas City, Missouri! Travel and lodging expenses covered for two team members to attend the Showcase.
Receive a dignifed award for your accomplishments.
A multi-media, national platform to share your team’s efforts and amplify awareness of the issue you’re addressing
The opportunity to connect with other diverse teams of problem-solvers across the country
Invitation to attend the in-person Bridging Movement Summit of leaders and pracitioners on Sept. 24-25 directly following the Awards event.
We the People Warwick (Winners of 2025 Bridge Building Innovation Awards)
Walworth County Uniters (Winners of 2025 Bridge Building Innovation Awards)
Award Selection Process
-
Your team completes this Application Form by the Junr 15 deadline. A team of judges will apply the following criteria to determine which applicants advance to the next round:
Teams must involve at least 5 individuals from the local area, which could be as small as a neighborhood, or as large as a county in scope.
Teams must have been working together for a minimum of 3 months to address an identified community issue.
Issues being addressed by a Team must involve bringing people together across lines of difference (generational, racial, ideological, faith, political, etc.)
The team must be able to show how their work is helping to rebuild trust in their community.
Team members themselves must represent different backgrounds or perspectives in order to model how they are able to work across their own lines of difference to address an issue in their community.
Teams must be working to develop collaborative, action-oriented solutions. Their work may involve constructive dialogue activities to engage the broader community in the collaborative solution development and implementation, but dialogue alone cannot be the full scope of what the team is doing.
Team members must either all be volunteers, or the team must represent a collaboration between local organizations and community members who are volunteering their time. In other words, the teams MAY NOT be made up of only paid-staff members of an organization.
Teams must be meeting in person at least some of the time to do the work.
-
Finalists will be selected to conduct a one-hour Zoom interview with two judges in July, so the judges can learn more about your team and the problem you’re addressing across differences.
-
The judges will score the finalists, deliberate, and select teams to receive the 2026 Bridge Building Innovation Awards.
Decisions will be communicated in early August.
Awards Event will occur in the evening on Sept. 23, 2026.
Winners of the 2025 Bridge Building Innovation Awards
2026 Awards Event Organizers
