Gathering Neighbors, Growing Trust

Our Mission

Gathering Neighbors, Growing Trust

We bring communities together.

    • Face-to-face relationships foster familiarity, understanding, and respect.
    • Shared meals, human conversations, and service projects nurture a shared vision for a thriving community.
    • Media that inspires
    • Public leadership and civic partnerships for the common good

Our Vision

Communities where everyone belongs and can work together – So that all can thrive.

Who does PTU work with?

A thriving pluralistic democracy depends on collaboration between people of all walks of life. Civic engagement begins in our neighborhoods and fans out into ever wider circles of participation.

    • PTU strengthens the foundation of civic life by building face-to-face relationships between local community groups, including wisdom traditions, nonprofits, service organizations, cultural clubs, and others.
    • We work with formal and informal leaders who want to build trust and collaborate with each other across lines of difference. These role models invite more and more people from their communities into group-to-group relationships.

From Our Blog

The Work of Renewing Our Civil Contract (Part 3)

April 18, 2026

Our differences are not the problem—our distance is There is a growing message in our country right now. Some leaders—including JD Vance and Steve Bannon—are saying that our diversity is the problem. Different cultures.Different traditions.Different identities. The argument goes like this:If we were more alike, we would be more united. It’s a simple idea. But…