Building Bridges

The programs we run with people we do not always agree with.

Disagreement is the default in a county of one million people. Coalition, not consensus, is the goal. These are three standing programs we co-convene with organizations across faith, politics, and sector — and the meeting calendar we keep so the bridges stay up between crises.

Why this exists

The room is bigger than the meeting.

Hard Conversations is a skill we teach for one-on-one disagreement with a neighbor. Building Bridges is the standing infrastructure for organizations that need to keep showing up together long after any single conversation ends. The first is a practice. The second is a calendar entry, a shared budget line, and three people with keys to the same room.

We do not run these programs because everyone agrees. We run them because in a county where the median commute is 31 minutes and the median rent has doubled since 2018, the cost of not having the room is paid by the same neighbors every time.

Three standing programs

The bridges we are responsible for keeping up.

Each program has a Coalition staff or volunteer point-person, a rotating chair from a partner org, and a published meeting cadence. We do not run the programs alone. We make sure they run.

Faith · Quarterly

Coastal Interfaith Council

Eight congregations — Catholic, AME, Reform Jewish, Sunni Muslim, Unitarian Universalist, and three nondenominational — meet quarterly to coordinate on hunger relief, voter education, and disaster response. The Coalition is the secretariat. We do not preach. We schedule the room and write the minutes.

Partner organizations

St. Mark Catholic Parish
Beth Or Reform Congregation
Tarpon Springs Masjid
Mt. Zion AME Church
Coastal UU Fellowship

Recent: Last quarter: 1,200 turkeys distributed across Pinellas in November.

Forum · Monthly

Pinellas Civics Forum

A monthly moderated panel that pairs one local elected official, one local journalist, and one community advocate on a single ordinance or budget item. We invite Republican and Democratic officeholders. We record audio. We publish a transcript. No gotchas, no editing.

Partner organizations

Pinellas County Bar Association
Tampa Bay Times (observer)
St. Pete College Civic Engagement

Recent: May forum: Sheriff candidates, school resource officer policy. 240 attended.

Coalition · Ongoing

Suncoast Housing Roundtable

Seven Pinellas organizations who disagree about almost everything except this: rents are unsustainable for working-class neighbors. The roundtable runs joint advocacy at the county and the four largest cities. The Coalition holds the meeting calendar and the shared document repository.

Partner organizations

Pinellas Realtors Association
Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas
United Tenants of Tampa Bay
Suncoast Center for Independent Living
CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse)

Recent: Q1 win: standardized tenant-displacement notice across all 24 Pinellas municipalities.

How we got here

Six years of small standing meetings.

Building Bridges is not a campaign. It is what we call the slow work of being the org that still picks up the phone after the news cycle ends. The work starts unglamorously and stays that way.

“The Coalition is the only group in this county that will book a room for me and Pastor Yates in the same week. We disagree on almost everything except who in our zip code is sleeping in their car. That common ground is enough to share a spreadsheet over.” — Rev. Adelaide Owens-Park, Coastal UU Fellowship

2019
First interfaith Thanksgiving food drive. Three congregations, 180 turkeys.
2021
Coastal Interfaith Council formalized after two years of monthly potlucks.
2023
Pinellas Civics Forum debuts. 60 attendees at the first event in Largo.
2025
Suncoast Housing Roundtable launches after the Tropical Storm Iris displacements.

Bring a bridge to build.

Have a standing partnership we should be co-convening? An interfaith event, a multi-org table, a quarterly forum? Tell us. We bring the meeting room, the minutes, and the follow-up.

Propose a partnership