Section 6. Creating Opportunities for Members of Groups to Identify Their Similarities, Differences, and Assets

• Why is identifying similarities, differences, and assets important?

• How can opportunities to identify similarities, differences, and assets be created in your community?

• How do you initiate a process to help people from different groups find common ground and share their assets?

• What types of events can you coordinate to celebrate the community's diversity and assets?

• What activities can you conduct to help people understand the histories and conditions that shape community experiences?

• What challenges should you be aware of, and how can they be addressed?

Why is identifying similarities, differences, and assets important?

"They are always speaking a language I don't understand. I don't know much about their community. What could we possibly have in common?"

"We both care about our children's education, so I assumed we would have the same experience dealing with the school. I didn't realize that language access, discrimination, or previous experiences with institutions might make that process different."

"I've heard people make negative assumptions about that community. I haven't actually asked residents how they understand the issue themselves."

Comments like these show how easy it is to make assumptions based on either perceived difference or perceived similarity.

If we focus only on differences, we may reinforce stereotypes or treat people as representatives of a cultural group rather than as individuals. If we focus only on similarities, we may overlook important differences in history, identity, access to resources, discrimination, political power, or everyday experience. If we focus only on problems, we may overlook community strengths, relationships, knowledge, institutions, and leadership.

Community building works best when people have opportunities to identify what they share, understand where experiences differ, and recognize the strengths and assets that different people and communities bring.

Consider an effort involving residents and business owners from different racial or ethnic communities in the same neighborhood. If the effort focuses only on learning cultural traditions, participants may gain useful knowledge but still leave with simplified ideas about how members of each community are expected to behave.

If the effort focuses only on similarities, participants may overlook important differences in how people experience housing, employment, education, public institutions, discrimination, or political influence.

And if the effort focuses only on problems, participants may come away seeing communities primarily through deficits instead of recognizing existing organizations, relationships, knowledge, businesses, cultural institutions, leadership, and other assets.

A stronger process can help people:

• Build relationships, trust, familiarity, and empathy
• Identify shared interests and community priorities
• Challenge stereotypes and misinformation about one another
• Understand how history, policy, political power, economic conditions, discrimination, and other factors may shape different community experiences
• Recognize and build on the knowledge, relationships, organizations, traditions, skills, and other assets already present in the community

Helping people recognize similarities, differences, and assets is only one part of community building. Dialogue and learning should connect, when appropriate, with changes in behavior, organizational practice, policy, access, or decision-making.

How can opportunities to identify similarities, differences, and assets be created in your community?

Use a multi-part strategy. Create opportunities for people to identify common ground, discuss meaningful differences, learn about community histories and present-day conditions, recognize assets, and connect what they learn with action.

For example, a community might combine facilitated conversations, cultural or community events, asset mapping, public education, and collaborative projects.

Build on issues that people identify as shared priorities. These might include healthy children, safe and accessible streets, clean parks, affordable housing, care and support for older adults, recreation, education, transportation, economic opportunity, or other concerns.

Shared goals can provide opportunities for people to work together, while still recognizing that the same issue may affect communities differently.

Include the people and communities affected by the work from the beginning. If the effort involves different racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic, disability, age, gender, sexual-orientation, or other communities, make sure participation is broad enough to reflect important differences within those communities as well.

Keep in mind: Existing organizations may have different relationships with the community. Some may be widely trusted, while others may have histories of exclusion, conflict, or limited representation.

Learn about those histories before deciding how organizations will participate. Do not assume that one organization or one highly visible leader speaks for an entire community.

Existing organizations can still play valuable roles, but their participation should be transparent and should not prevent additional residents or organizations from having direct input.

Do not invite important communities only after major decisions have already been made. Participation is more meaningful when people are included early enough to influence the purpose, structure, priorities, and activities of the effort.

New participants should also be able to join later without being treated as outsiders. Provide orientation, explain previous decisions, and create opportunities for them to contribute meaningfully.

Tip: Avoid placing one person in the position of representing an entire racial, ethnic, religious, disability, gender, or other community. When possible, include several people with different experiences and perspectives.

When scheduling meetings, ask participants about access needs, schedules, religious observances, caregiving responsibilities, transportation, and other considerations.

Do not assume what a particular religious or cultural group needs based only on general knowledge. For example, religious observance during Ramadan may affect meal timing or schedules for some Muslim participants, but individuals and communities may observe differently. Ask participants what would make attendance possible and comfortable.

Pay attention to the meeting location. Choose a space that is physically accessible, easy to reach, welcoming, and not strongly associated with exclusion or control by one group when that association could discourage participation.

Also consider transportation, parking, public transit, restrooms, childcare, interpretation, captioning, sensory conditions, technology access, and remote participation where relevant.

How do you initiate a process to help people from different groups find common ground and share their assets?

Begin with a goal or question broad enough for different people to see themselves in it. Examples might include “What would make this community healthier?” or “What would make this neighborhood a better place to live, work, learn, and participate?”

At the first meeting, allow time for people to become comfortable with one another before moving immediately into difficult issues.

Icebreakers can be useful, but avoid activities that pressure people to explain their names, immigration history, ancestry, religion, identity, or other personal information. Offer questions that participants can answer at whatever level they choose.

For example:

• What is one place in the community that matters to you?
• What is one strength you see in this community?
• What brought you to this conversation?
• What is one thing you hope this community will be like in the future?

Then select a broad topic such as “healthy community,” “belonging,” “opportunity,” or “quality of life” and invite participants to describe what it means to them.

As people describe their experiences, listen for existing community assets: organizations, businesses, faith communities, cultural institutions, informal networks, skills, languages, relationships, meeting spaces, traditions, knowledge, and leadership.

For example, a participant might identify a neighborhood organization that provides language classes, workforce support, youth programming, food distribution, arts activities, or another resource. That organization and the people connected with it are community assets.

Facilitation questions:

• What does “community” mean to you? You can also invite participants to draw or otherwise represent their idea of community.
• Where do you see yourself in the community? What roles do you play?
• In what ways does your community reflect your idea of what a community should be? In what ways does it not?
• What would make the community better for you, your family, or the people you care about?
• What existing cultural resources, organizations, relationships, activities, knowledge, or other assets could help move the community toward that vision?
• What is missing? Why might it be missing? What can residents, organizations, institutions, and public agencies do individually or together?
• Who is not yet part of this discussion but should be?
• Are some people or communities experiencing the issue differently from others?
• What decisions, policies, or institutions may influence the issue?

As one dialogue develops, continue learning from it. Additional conversations may involve different residents or organizations, but avoid creating a process in which participants are repeatedly asked only to recruit “leaders.” People without formal leadership titles may have equally important knowledge and experience.

What types of events can you coordinate to celebrate the community's diversity?

Community events can complement dialogue and collaborative work by creating opportunities for cultural expression, learning, enjoyment, and relationship-building.

Whenever possible, the people whose traditions or histories are being presented should help decide what is shared and how it is represented.

Festivals, holidays, commemorations, arts events, performances, exhibitions, markets, storytelling, and other activities can all create opportunities for learning and connection.

If you create a community calendar, verify dates and names each year with reliable sources or participating communities. Cultural and religious calendars vary. Some observances follow lunar, lunisolar, solar, or other calendar systems, and dates may shift from year to year.

Libraries, community centers, museums, schools, parks, faith communities, cultural organizations, and other public or community spaces may host displays, programs, discussions, performances, or educational activities.

Do not treat cultural diversity only as food, clothing, holidays, or entertainment. These can be meaningful parts of culture, but communities also have histories, institutions, political experiences, languages, artistic traditions, beliefs, challenges, and forms of leadership that deserve attention.

Food-centered events can still be valuable when communities choose to share culinary traditions. Present food as one form of cultural expression rather than as an easy or “non-threatening” way to experience difference.

Communities may also mark heritage months and other recognized periods of cultural or historical significance. These observances can provide useful opportunities for learning, but cultural history and representation should not be limited to one month each year.

Initial questions to guide event planning include:

• What celebrations, commemorations, traditions, or events are important to you or your community?
• How are they observed, and how much variation exists within the community?
• What would you like to share with the broader community?
• Are there connections with traditions or experiences in other communities?
• Are there aspects that should remain private or within the community rather than being presented publicly?
• Who should lead the planning and interpretation?

What activities can you conduct to help people understand the histories and conditions that shape community experiences?

Community education can help people understand why different groups may experience the same institutions, policies, or community conditions differently.

These activities may occur in small groups, schools, workplaces, public forums, community events, media, online spaces, museums, libraries, or public education campaigns.

The goal should not be to define a group only through oppression. Strong education includes histories of discrimination and inequality as well as cultural life, resistance, achievement, leadership, institutions, creativity, and everyday community experience.

Are groups treated differently in your community? What histories, policies, or conditions contribute to those differences?

Photographs, maps, archival documents, newspaper articles, oral histories, public data, artwork, historic places, and other materials can help begin discussion.

Select materials carefully. Avoid repeatedly representing Black communities only through slavery, Asian American communities only through labor exploitation, Muslim communities only through religious symbols, Indigenous communities only through historical images, or any group only through trauma or discrimination.

A community might also examine the meaning of a local statue, street name, school name, neighborhood boundary, historic building, memorial, highway, public institution, or other feature.

Ask participants:

• What does this place, name, image, or symbol mean to you?
• What history does it represent?
• Whose experiences are included?
• Whose may be missing?
• Has its meaning changed over time?

Residents who have recently arrived in a community and people whose families have lived there for generations may bring different but equally valuable perspectives. Learning can be reciprocal rather than treating long-time residents as teachers and newer residents as people who simply need to be introduced to local history.

Public education campaigns can also address misinformation or unequal conditions. Use current, credible evidence together with the experiences of residents and organizations directly connected with the issue.

Possible public education activities include:

• Articles, interviews, podcasts, videos, or other media about the experiences, contributions, concerns, and priorities of communities represented locally
• Community education about racial, ethnic, disability, health, economic, environmental, or other disparities and the factors that may contribute to them
• Posters, exhibits, signs, digital displays, or public art highlighting community histories and assets
• Visits, open houses, or public programs hosted by faith communities, cultural organizations, museums, community centers, and other institutions that choose to welcome outside participants
• Facilitated discussions in schools, neighborhood organizations, businesses, public agencies, and other community settings about racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, and other forms of discrimination

Give people accessible ways to learn more or become involved. Depending on the community, this may include websites, email, text messaging, QR codes, online forms, printed materials, phone numbers, community meetings, or in-person sign-up opportunities.

Collect only the contact information you need, explain how it will be used, and protect it appropriately.

What challenges should you be aware of, and how can they be addressed?

People may have previous experiences – positive or negative – with coalitions, dialogue efforts, public institutions, or cross-cultural initiatives. Those experiences may affect whether they trust a new process.

Do not automatically attribute previous difficulties to “cultural barriers” or communication styles. Conflict may also result from unclear expectations, unequal power, poor facilitation, language access, institutional history, exclusion, competition for resources, discrimination, or other factors.

Learn what happened before. Talk with people who participated in previous efforts, review available records, and ask what would need to be different for people to participate again.

Conversations about racism, discrimination, power, privilege, history, religion, immigration, or other difficult topics can create tension.

Develop clear agreements for discussion. Ground rules might include listening without interruption, criticizing ideas rather than people, avoiding stereotypes, allowing participants to pause or pass, protecting confidentiality when appropriate, and addressing harmful comments directly.

Facilitators should be prepared to respond when stereotypes emerge. For example, if someone repeats a stereotype about Jewish people and money, Asian Americans and academic ability, Black men and crime, immigrants and public benefits, or another community, do not leave the stereotype standing simply because it came up during an open discussion.

Name the stereotype, clarify why it is inaccurate or harmful, and redirect the conversation toward evidence, individual experience, and the actual issue under discussion.

Participants may also compare histories of oppression or argue about which community has experienced the greatest harm.

Avoid turning oppression into a competition. Histories such as slavery, colonialism, caste discrimination, genocide, forced displacement, segregation, and other forms of oppression have different contexts and consequences. Those differences should be understood rather than collapsed into a single ranking.

Facilitators can acknowledge the seriousness of each history while helping participants focus on what they need to understand about one another and what collective action is possible in the present.

Dialogue also needs a clear connection to action when participants are being asked to address a community problem.

Be explicit about why people are being invited, what decisions they can influence, what resources exist, and what outcomes are possible.

Communities can become frustrated when they are repeatedly asked to share experiences without seeing any change in policy, funding, programming, leadership, or institutional behavior.

Before beginning, make sure there is enough time, staff, funding, facilitation, accessibility support, and organizational commitment to carry the process through.

Develop a budget and action plan that matches the available resources. If necessary, work in phases and identify what can realistically be completed in each phase.

At the end of each phase:

• Review what was accomplished
• Ask participants what worked and what did not
• Identify barriers to participation
• Review whether decisions reflected community input
• Identify what should change in the next phase
• Communicate clearly about what will happen next

In Summary

Community-building efforts should help people understand both what they share and how their experiences may differ.

Focusing only on similarities can hide important differences in history, discrimination, access, identity, or power. Focusing only on differences can reinforce stereotypes and make groups seem more separate than they are. Focusing only on problems can obscure the strengths, relationships, organizations, knowledge, culture, leadership, and other assets communities already possess.

Strong processes combine relationship-building, honest discussion of differences, asset identification, community education, and opportunities for action.

Participation should begin early enough for people to influence goals and decisions. No one person or organization should be expected to represent an entire racial, ethnic, religious, disability, cultural, or other community.

Cultural events can contribute to learning and belonging, but diversity should not be reduced to holidays, food, clothing, or entertainment. Communities also need opportunities to understand histories, institutions, discrimination, political and economic conditions, and the ways these factors affect present-day experiences.

Difficult conversations require thoughtful facilitation, sufficient resources, accessible participation, and clear expectations. When stereotypes or harmful statements arise, facilitators should address them rather than allowing them to stand unchallenged.

Finally, dialogue should connect with action when communities are trying to change conditions. Residents should know why they are being asked to participate, what influence they will have, what resources are available, and what will happen with the information they provide.

The goal is not to make everyone the same or to emphasize difference for its own sake. It is to help people understand one another more accurately, recognize community strengths, address inequities, and work together on priorities they share.