We live in fractious, hyper-partisan times. These days, scoring political points is at the center of public engagement. When that happens, governance takes a back seat to political warfare and any notion of the common good or compromise is thrown out the window by both the right and the left.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Politics is really about negotiation and compromise to achieve the common good. Politics is how we decide to live together, and is the alternative to violence or litigation. And to effect change, we must build power in ways that move beyond partisanship and sectarianism.

In recent years, the organizing efforts of Working Together Jackson have at times moved into areas of state-wide interest. These efforts formed the genesis of what would become Working Together Mississippi.

By 2021, Working Together Mississippi had engaged more than 270 congregations—parishes, synagogues, mosques—and other local nonprofits state-wide, reflecting the religious, racial, and geographic diversity of the state. Since 2023, with the help of Kellogg Foundation, Hope Enterprise Corporation, the Community Foundation for Mississippi, the Catholic Campaign for Human Develop and the New Pluralists we are identifying and supporting talented institutional leaders state-wide who are interested in building broad-based organizations with their neighbors. We believe that people working together have the power to change their communities and their country for the better. The organizations we train leaders to build exist for the purpose of strengthening their local institutions and building capacity to accomplish the change they can imagine. We hope you’ll join us.