Restorative Justice Apprenticeship: Circle Keeping for Community Building

Learn the ancient practice of circle keeping to build stronger communities, facilitate healing conversations, and create spaces where everyone belongs.

📅Spring 2026

"This experience is exhilarating. It's like going on a rollercoaster that looks scary, but after you go through the drops and loops, you're like 'I want to do that again!' The Civic Gym is like that but without the long lines."

— Civic Gym Student Participant

A dynamic digital library and network where educators discover, create, and collaborate to improve teaching and learning with open educational resources.

Making quality education accessible and affordable for everyone through freely available, openly licensed teaching and learning materials that can be used, adapted, and shared without cost.

What Is The Dignity Index?

The Dignity Index is a simple tool that helps you measure whether communication shows dignity or contempt. It uses a scale from 1 to 8, where higher scores show more dignity and lower scores show more contempt.

In our current world, public conversation has become harsh and divisive. Politicians, media figures, and everyday people often use contempt when talking about others. This makes problems worse and prevents us from finding solutions.

This toolkit helps parents and families develop skills for healthy disagreement. When family members disagree constructively, everyone feels heard, relationships stay strong, and children learn valuable life skills.

Disagreement is natural and inevitable in families. The question isn't whether we'll disagree—it's how we'll disagree. This toolkit teaches practical strategies for navigating differences with respect, curiosity, and care.

This toolkit gives you tools to:

• Listen to understand, not just to respond

• Express disagreement without attacking or dismissing

• Find common ground even in tough conversations

• Model healthy conflict resolution for children

• Repair relationships after heated moments

• Build family communication skills that last a lifetime

Whether you're navigating political differences with extended family, handling sibling conflicts, or working through parenting disagreements with a partner, these tools help create more connection and less division.

What Is This Toolkit?

This toolkit helps organizations build a strong culture where people trust each other, work well together, and feel connected to their work and teammates.

Culture is how people act, talk, and treat each other at work every day. A good culture makes people want to come to work, do their best, and stay at the company. A bad culture makes people unhappy and want to leave.

Share Our America Toolkit

A free guide to help you bring people together in your community. Learn how to start conversations that build understanding and respect between people who are different from each other.

Common Ground Spotlight

5 Healthcare Policies Texas Democrats and Republicans Agree On

By Alex Buscemi • September 9, 2025

Texas faces real healthcare strain—from hospital closures to families delaying care. Builders highlights five practical policies that Texans across party lines already support.

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Price transparency: up-front estimates for non-emergencies (HB 1314) so families can plan and compare.

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More mental-health access: allow licensed out-of-state counselors (incl. telehealth) to serve Texans.

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Cap out-of-pocket costs: limit what people pay for life-saving meds like insulin and inhalers.

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Pharmacist test & treat: enable pharmacies to handle common illnesses (strep, flu, UTI), especially for rural access.

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Medicaid expansion support: broad citizen backing—vital for keeping rural hospitals open.

This kit gathers the current calls to action from We Hold These Truths. Start small, invite others, and help uphold freedom, equality, fair elections, and the rule of law.

Pick one action now, then share with a friend or host a short conversation this month.

The Houston Food Bank invites neighbors to take simple steps that add up: learn the basics, speak up, and lend a hand. Below are quick, clear actions sorted by time. Pick one that fits your day and follow the button to their site.

Join a life-changing 10-week journey into Cognitively Based Compassion Training. Developed at Emory University and backed by decades of research, CBCT helps you strengthen attention, regulate emotions, and sustain compassion for yourself and everyone you meet.

What is CBCT?

Compassion U™ is a virtual way to learn CBCT (Cognitively Based Compassion Training), a program developed at Emory University in 2005 to cultivate compassion and emotional well-being in adults. CBCT is already transforming the fields of healthcare, mental health, education, and business.

Three Essential Steps

• Create more opportunities for connection - Space must be intentionally created, like a garden, for relationships to take root and grow

• Focus on shared goals - Americans prefer working together toward common community objectives rather than just discussing their differences

• Build on success - Research shows that the more people connect across differences, the more likely they are to want to continue doing so

Frientimacy: The 3 Requirements of All Healthy Friendships” by Shasta Nelson
TEDx Talk | 16 min video
A powerful and funny talk by our very own Chief Friendship Officer that breaks down what makes friendships meaningful and how to strengthen the ones you have.

Young people already want to work alongside adults to solve community issues—but often lack spaces with real power or connection reciprocal collaboration.

Emotional dysregulation affects how people respond to stress and communicate feelings, often leading to misunderstood behaviors and strained relationships. Understanding its root causes—such as trauma, neurodivergence, or chronic stress—opens the door to healing and resilience. This guide empowers caregivers, educators, and individuals with language and tools for support.

Books Unbanned is a bold initiative by Brooklyn Public Library to counter censorship and increase access to diverse books for young readers. This program allows teens and young adults ages 13–21 anywhere in the United States to get a free digital library card—giving them access to a wide array of e-books and audiobooks, including many titles being challenged or banned across the country.