{"id":356946,"date":"2026-07-01T07:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356946\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:11:24","slug":"impact-story-in-houston-leaders-are-learning-to-bridge-not-in-theory-but-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356946\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact Story: In Houston, leaders are learning to bridge \u2014 not in theory, but in practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Community leaders discuss critical issues related to bridging and belonging at the American Leadership Forum’s Bridge Houston event.<\/p>\n

In a moment defined by deep division, when it feels harder to be with one another. Where difference too often becomes distance. Where disagreement hardens into division. Where the spaces that once held us together \u2014 our institutions, our communities, even our conversations \u2014 are under strain.<\/p>\n

In Houston, a group of leaders is choosing a different path.<\/p>\n

Not by ignoring those divisions or trying to resolve them quickly. But by learning how to stay connected through them and to do the work that bridging makes possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here isn\u2019t just about Houston. It\u2019s about what becomes possible when you invest in relationships, shared language, and a willingness to bridge across differences \u2014 and how that can travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

They come from across sectors \u2014 food systems, public defense, business, housing, and civic life. They do not all share the same politics. They do not all agree. But they share a recognition that feels increasingly urgent: the tools they have inherited for navigating differences are no longer enough for the moment we are in.<\/p>\n

So they are building new ones.<\/p>\n

Through the Bridging and Belonging Fellowship<\/a> \u2014 convened by the Empower Initiative and in partnership with the Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI) and the American Leadership Forum (ALF) \u2014 these leaders are not just studying bridging as an idea. They are practicing it and bringing it into the institutions and systems they are responsible for shaping.<\/p>\n

And that practice is already taking form.<\/p>\n

In a citywide survey<\/a> on belonging and connection, developed in partnership with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, that is helping leaders understand how people experience connection across Houston and where those connections are breaking down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In gatherings<\/a> across Houston, where leaders from different sectors are coming together not to debate solutions, but to ask what becomes possible when trust is built first. At belonging tables, where community leaders from different faiths and backgrounds sit together, break bread, and engage in honest, civil conversations across differences \u2014 even on the most difficult issues.<\/p>\n

And in the quieter, everyday decisions \u2014 how leaders convene, how they listen, how they design systems \u2014 that begin to reimagine how institutions show up in people\u2019s lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work isn\u2019t just about the big moments,\u201d said Empower Initiative co-founder Ben McBride.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s about how we show up every day \u2014 in the meetings we lead, the decisions we make, the way we respond when there\u2019s tension or disagreement. That\u2019s where bridging actually lives. And if we\u2019re not practicing it there, then it doesn\u2019t matter what we say we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leaders from Houston belonging to the Bridging and Belonging Fellowship convened at an Empower Initiave event last year.<\/p>\n

Serving as Chief Public Defender for Houston\u2019s Harris County, Genesis Draper said the fellowship has helped her to navigate a system that is \u201cadversarial in nature,\u201d from the inside-out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to ask myself \u2014 do I have to be that way? Because if I do, then I\u2019m never actually seeing the person across from me. I\u2019m only seeing their role, and that limits what\u2019s possible in that relationship,\u201d she said. \u201cThis work of bridging really helps you to internally have those moments with yourself, and to see people not as colleagues to disagree with, but as human beings to connect with.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in Houston, that kind work didn\u2019t emerge overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has been built over decades, said ALF Houston President Nory Angel. Through ALF\u2019s leadership programs and cohorts, leaders across the city have been coming together to engage across lines of difference and wrestling with issues like gun control, immigration, and more.<\/p>\n

That sustained commitment to relationship-building has laid the groundwork for what\u2019s happening now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd over time, that creates something powerful. You\u2019re not starting from zero,\u201d Angel said. \u201cYou\u2019re building on a web of trust, where people are already connected within just a few degrees of separation. That makes it possible to do this kind of work in a deeper way. And the fellowship gave that foundation the framing and energy it needed to really take hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bridging and Belonging Fellows traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to understand the history and culture of post-apartheid South Africa. They enjoyed ceremonies and performances from local culturebearers.<\/p>\n

Bridging before conflict<\/p>\n

The Bridging and Belonging Fellowship was designed with a simple but urgent premise: most leaders are asked to navigate division without ever being taught how.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize how much people carry, and how much they\u2019re still willing to extend toward one another. Even after everything they\u2019ve been through, there\u2019s a commitment to building something together.\u201d<\/p>\n

People across sectors \u2014 private, public, faith, social change \u2014 often don\u2019t get into relationships until the point of crisis,\u201d said McBride. \u201cAnd by then, anxiety is high, people are dug in, and the stories we\u2019ve told ourselves about each other are already hardened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of waiting for conflict, the fellowship brought leaders together before it, inviting participants into a structured year-long experience of reflection, relationship-building, and practice grounded in the idea that belonging is not just a value, but something that must be intentionally built through bridging across differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most powerful things is watching people move from certainty to curiosity,\u201d said Ashlin Malouf, OBI Deputy Director. \u201cWhen that shift happens, the entire dynamic in the room changes and suddenly, connection becomes possible in ways it wasn\u2019t before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across months, McBride and Malouf engaged fellows in facilitated conversations, deep reflection, and shared experiences that challenge how they see themselves, each other, and the systems they operate within.<\/p>\n

Some of those experiences took fellows out of their day-to-day environments entirely \u2014 into places where history, conflict, and possibility are held side by side.<\/p>\n

\n Slideshow from the Empower Initiative’s March 2025 Learning Lab during which the group visited three cities in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma cities in Alabama.\n<\/p>\n

In Alabama, fellows walked through sites central to the civil rights movement, confronting the legacy of racial injustice in ways that moved beyond abstraction, which McBride called a \u201cspiritual pilgrimage.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many, the learning was not just in what they saw, but in who they encountered. Dorian Cockrell, who serves as Vice President of Global Philanthropy at JP Morgan Chase, said the immersive experiences with people he never would have interacted with were the most powerful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up sitting down and having lunch with an Alabama state trooper,\u201d said Cockrell. \u201cSeeing the archival images and videos of state troopers violently abusing Black people during the civil rights movement, that wasn\u2019t someone I would have chosen to meet at the legacy of slavery museum.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what the fellowship does,\u201d he added. \u201cIt creates these moments where you\u2019re pushed outside of your comfort zone, and you have to decide whether you\u2019re going to lean in or pull back. That was my moment of bridging, realizing that connection is possible even when the history between people says otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Thao Costis, that design \u2014 bringing people from different systems into shared experience \u2014 was what made the fellowship transformative for her. An Executive Director for housing and community development in Houston, Costis said the history she learned had an impact on how she views current struggles in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese challenges are never in isolation,\u201d she said. \u201cHousing, education, criminal justice \u2014 they\u2019re all intertwined, and yet the way we\u2019re trained to lead often keeps us in our lanes. What the fellowship does is disrupt that. It puts you in relationship with people whose work intersects with yours in ways you may not have fully understood before. And once you see that, it changes how you think about solutions and what\u2019s actually possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fellows share a meal together in Cape Town, South Africa. Ben McBride, front right, led the fellows through hands-on bridging and belonging experiences throughout the city.<\/p>\n

Fellowship participants also traveled together internationally to South Africa, where learning moved beyond theory. As President of Softway, a B2E Houston tech company, Mohammad Anwar sat and ate with people who had lived through apartheid, and was surprised by the resolve they exhibited to continue to bridge with those who had enforced the system against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t angry, they were hopeful, resilient, ready to build something new,\u201d said Anwar. \u201cAnd it stopped being history. It became real. That changed how I understood what\u2019s possible when people choose to move forward without forgetting what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

As CEO of She\u2019s Happy Hair, Warren Broadnax also operates a foundation dedicated to empowering youth and low-income families. For Broadnax, the experience in South Africa underscored something deeper about connecting across differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize how much people carry, and how much they\u2019re still willing to extend toward one another,\u201d he said. \u201cEven after everything they\u2019ve been through, there\u2019s a commitment to building something together. And that forces you to reflect on your own context \u2014 on what we\u2019re holding onto, and what we might need to let go of in order to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, those experiences reshaped how fellows understood both history and possibility not as something distant, but as something actively shaping the choices they make in their own communities.<\/p>\n

As Chief Impact Officer at the Houston Foodbank, Nicole Lander oversees the largest foodbank in the country providing access to 150 million meals every year. As a veteran in the nonprofit world, the trips changed how she saw systems entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start to realize how many of our systems are designed in ways that keep people apart rather than bringing them together,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd once you see that, it\u2019s hard to go back. It changes how you approach your work and what you think your responsibility is within those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

OBI’s Deputy Director Ashlin Malouf (left), and ALF Director Nory Angel, middle, traveled to South Africa with the fellowship.<\/p>\n

Bridging in practice<\/p>\n

While the fellowship brought personal transformation for its cohort, it is now becoming collective action. In Houston, fellows are beginning to translate bridging into systems, policies, and shared civic efforts.<\/p>\n

One of the most significant outcomes is a partnership with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, which led to a\u00a0citywide study on belonging and connection<\/a>. Stephen Ives, President and CEO of YMCA Houston, said the survey has helped the group understand what people in Houston are going through at this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we found is that connection and belonging are more strongly correlated with life satisfaction than income or education. That tells us that belonging is not just a \u2018nice to have,\u2019 it\u2019s foundational,\u201d said Ives. \u201cAnd that insight reframes our work. Belonging is no longer just a value. It is something measurable and actionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those findings are already influencing how leaders think about policy and practice, not as separate from belonging, but as deeply connected to it. That work carried into the\u00a0Stronger Together<\/a> convening held in Houston, where in March hundreds of leaders across sectors gathered to reflect on the data and ask what it requires of them.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The American Leadership Forum’s Bridge Houston events continue to bring community leaders from across the city to find common ground across differences and create spaces of belonging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to create something entirely new,\u201d Ives said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking: how do we take what already exists and embed connection and belonging into it in a more intentional way?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lander added: \u201cFood insecurity and the lack of other basic needs is impacted by the fact that residents lack connection and a sense of belonging. If we work to change those foundational issues it will help with the overall well-being of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the work is not confined to research or large-scale gatherings. It is also unfolding in smaller, more intimate spaces where bridging becomes something people can experience directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cListening is critical \u2014 and it\u2019s something we don\u2019t practice enough. Not listening to respond, but listening to actually understand someone whose experience is different from your own \u2014 that\u2019s where bridging starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across Houston, fellows have convened belonging tables, bringing together community leaders from different faiths, backgrounds, and political perspectives to sit together, share meals, and engage in honest conversations across difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hosted an iftar during a time when there was a lot of fear and division around the topic of Israel and Palestinian relations,\u201d said Anwar. \u201cWe brought together people from different faiths \u2014 rabbis, muslims and Christians \u2014 not to debate, not to solve everything, but just to sit together and see each other as human again.\u201d<\/p>\n

For fellow Allie Falender, a program director at the Nature Conservancy, that translation from idea to practice is where the work becomes real. Falender, who previously worked at Shell as a biotechnician, said that in conservation work, people may disagree politically but they can agree that protecting land and water matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that becomes an entry point. It\u2019s not about forcing agreement, it\u2019s about identifying where shared values already exist and building from there in a way that creates trust. The fellowship taught us that listening is critical, and it\u2019s something we don\u2019t practice enough. Not listening to respond, but listening to actually understand someone whose experience is different from your own \u2014 that\u2019s where bridging starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

In Cape Town, fellows shared meals with local leaders and residents which inspired fellows to create their own Belonging dinners in different parts of Houston.<\/p>\n

Others are bringing bridging into the design of systems themselves. For Draper, that means rethinking what it looks like to show up as a professional in spaces with the intention to bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think before, I was moving so quickly through my work that I didn\u2019t always take the time to examine what biases and judgement I was carrying into those spaces,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, I\u2019m much more aware of that, and that awareness has changed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for Broadnax, the work means investing in the next generation. Creating pathways for young people to feel a sense of belonging and possibility in their own lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work may look different across sectors, but it is connected by a shared approach,\u201d said Broadnax. \u201cAnd for me, this work is about the next generation. If young people don\u2019t feel like they belong, then we\u2019re not doing our job. The fellowship made me more intentional about how I show up for them and the kind of community we\u2019re building around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shift in perspective, and what comes next<\/p>\n

The most lasting impact of bridging work, for many of the fellows, is not just what they are doing differently \u2014 it is how they are seeing differently. Costis says that shift begins with a deeper understanding of complexity when it comes to collaborating on challenges together.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Houston members of the fellowship: Allie Falender (left), Dorian Cockrell (center), and Nicole Lander (right).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we keep approaching these issues in silos, we\u2019re going to keep reproducing the same outcomes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe opportunity here is to actually work across systems in a way that reflects how people experience their lives \u2014 not how our institutions are structured.\u201d<\/p>\n

That change is subtle but profound, said Falender. It shows up in how leaders listen. How they hold disagreement, and how they define success.<\/p>\n

\u201cListening is critical \u2014 and it\u2019s something we don\u2019t practice enough,\u201d she said. \u201cNot listening to respond, but listening to actually understand someone whose experience is different from your own \u2014 that\u2019s where bridging starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lander, that shift has made the systems she works within impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fellowship made me realize that I\u2019m not just operating within systems. I\u2019m helping shape them, whether I intend to or not,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that comes with a responsibility to be more intentional about how I show up, how I make decisions, and how I create space for others. It shifted my mindset from just doing the work to really thinking about the impact of how that work is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the work of bridging and belonging can be challenging when others don\u2019t want to bridge, said Draper. A daily question she has asked herself is: \u201cHow do you honor someone\u2019s humanity even when you disagree?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work isn\u2019t just about the big moments. It\u2019s about how we show up every day \u2014 in the meetings we lead, the decisions we make, the way we respond when there\u2019s tension or disagreement. That\u2019s where bridging actually lives. And if we\u2019re not practicing it there, then it doesn\u2019t matter what we say we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I started to think more about the people behind the cases \u2014 not just my client, but the victims too. That was a shift for me. Because in an adversarial system, you\u2019re not really encouraged to see the full humanity of everyone involved. But the fellowship pushed me to sit with that and to recognize that every person in that situation has a story, a family, a life that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is happening in Houston is still unfolding, but it is already pointing toward something larger, said McBride \u2014 the foundation of a new fabric of relationships.<\/p>\n

And that fabric is not limited to one city, said Angel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here isn\u2019t just about Houston,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about what becomes possible when you invest in relationships, shared language, and a willingness to bridge across differences \u2014 and how that can travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel has begun exploring how this work might extend globally, including places like Croatia, where histories of division continue to shape civic life.<\/p>\n

The contexts are different. But the question remains the same. What does it take to build belonging across differences?<\/p>\n

Back in Houston, the answers are emerging in real time. In rooms like the ones where strangers become collaborators. In data that reframes what matters. In leaders willing to change themselves before trying to change others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a moment where everything is pushing us to separate and take sides, creating spaces where people can stay connected across difference isn\u2019t just valuable,\u201d said Malouf. \u201cIt\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fellows together hiked up a Cape Town mountain during their trip to South Africa. As a team exercise Warren Broadnax said “It was an experience I will never forget.”<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s happening in Houston offers a glimpse of what becomes possible when people choose to try. Not perfectly. Not easily.<\/p>\n

But together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about getting it right every time,\u201d said McBride. \u201cIt\u2019s about making a commitment to keep showing up\u2014to stay in relationship even when it\u2019s hard, to resist the instinct to pull away, and to keep choosing each other. That\u2019s what makes transformation possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community leaders discuss critical issues related to bridging and belonging at the American Leadership Forum’s Bridge Houston event.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-356946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}