In any ecosystem, growth doesn’t happen all at once. A seed doesn’t become a towering tree overnight. Streams don’t carve valleys in a single season. Life unfolds gradually, in stages. And in the same forest, you can find new shoots, flowering plants, and old-growth giants all existing together.
The same is true of civic life.
A Developmental and Differentiated Approach
Communities don’t leap from division and distrust straight into a healthy democracy. There are stages of growth. First comes simple contact—meeting across differences. Then relationship. Then shared action. Then, as trust deepens, public advocacy and long-term collaboration.
But unlike a neat row of crops, communities are not uniform. In every town, some people are just beginning to build relationships across divides, while others are ready for shared advocacy or policy change. That’s why our approach must be both developmental and differentiated: offering pathways for every stage, while recognizing that people and groups will always be at different places in their civic journey.
An ecosystem doesn’t ask all its species to bloom at once. Neither should we.
The Limits of Any One Method
Every methodology of social change has its limits. Bridge-building can collapse if it ignores the lived experiences of our neighbors. Advocacy can backfire if it doesn’t build trust across divides. Education can stall if it doesn’t connect to lived experience.
As Allison Ralph recently wrote, we face a false choice when we separate bridging from advocacy. Bridging without advocacy avoids hard questions. Advocacy without bridging risks polarization and fragile gains.
The truth is: no single method can solve a whole-of-society problem.
A Multi-Solver Framework
That’s why we need a multi-solver ecosystem of methods—each one complementing the other:
- Bridging makes advocacy sustainable.
- Advocacy ensures bridging isn’t toothless.
- Civic education deepens reflection.
- Storytelling sustains hope.
- Service projects ground ideals in lived experience.
- Journalism speaks truth to power.
- Structural reform opens equal access and voice to all.
Like the variety of species in a thriving ecosystem, each method has a role. Together, they create resilience.
The Gift of Multi-faith Practice
Multi-faith organizations offer unique contributions to this civic ecosystem. They model what it looks like to:
- Hold strong identities while forming shared purpose.
- Stay at the table when it’s hard.
- Build flexible, issue-based partnerships.
- Break down false binaries like “left vs. right” or “sacred vs. secular.”
- Ground belonging in neighborhoods.
- Leverage deep networks of community spaces.
These practices don’t erase differences—they show how we can thrive through them. In many ways, multi-faith work is a micro-model of democracy itself: diverse, resilient, and able to withstand tension without breaking. (again, here is the link to Allison Ralph’s excellent article.)
A Clarification About Vision
Many traditions hold beautiful visions of a world where everyone belongs and creation flourishes. These visions are vital; they keep us reaching for a better future. But no single congregation, nonprofit, or movement can live out the whole vision alone.
Honoring the ecosystem means bringing our vision to the table while making room for the gifts and visions of others.
Toward a Thriving Civic Ecosystem
The ‘Thriving Together’ WA State Civic Innovation Network is not about choosing the “best” method, but about weaving many methods into one ecosystem of change. By coordinating across differences—methodological, cultural, and ideological—we can cultivate civic life strong enough to move Washington, and the nation, toward a future where all belong and all can thrive.