Join & Volunteer With Existing Organizations - Many of the organizations active in this arena offer volunteer opportunities. Some may be doable from anywhere, others may require you to be near an organization's office. Some of the organizations have chapters, and that raises the possibility of volunteering with a local chapter or even, if the circumstances are right, starting a local chapter.

Support Specific Reform Initiatives - Several of the reforms can help moderate conflict, or remove or reform processes that by their nature seem to encourage the kind of competition that builds hostility. For example, replacing partisan redistricting with non-partisan commissions helps all sides feel the process is fair, and conspicuous fairness can act like kryptonite to the escalation of hostility.

Embrace & Promote Civility Practices - You will find such practices described in detail by several of the organizations profiled as promoting common ground. This may seem like too little to ask, "mere" civility, but it can be surprisingly difficult for some, and the effort will surely sensitize you to the presence of any uncivil impulses lurking within you. Practicing impulse control may be helpful with interactions, but more surprising, your hostile attitudes may mellow with the effort.

Cultivate Your Skills & Attitudes - Conferences, training programs, and written and video materials can help you cultivate the skills and attitudes that will make you more effective in communicating across divides. For much more on this, visit our article on Strengthening Your Skills. It is no accident that this point comes before the points below. Watch out for overconfidence bias, and if in doubt, pay at least some attention to growing skills and cultivating attitudes for success before attempting direct engagement across divides.

Start Or Join A Bridging Conversation Group - One good way to try your hand while simultaneously growing skills and cultivating helpful attitudes is to take part in Living Room Conversations. These structured conversations occur within a framework in which people on all sides are trying to talk constructively, and thus they can be an ideal point of entry into this unfamiliar realm of bridge-building.

Start A "Just You & I" Bridging Conversation - Many people have relatives, neighbors or co-workers on "the other side" of important issues, but many have also learned through painful experience to steer away from topics likely to precipitate hostile reactions. Pain without progress seldom seems worth repeating. Yet with substantially improved skills and better attitudes, such conversations need not be hopeless. To be clear, these skills and attitudes have nothing to do with "winning" a logical fact-centered argument. They have instead everything to do with utilizing emotional intelligence to avoid arousing defenses and to establish good will. Your partners in conversation must feel that you are approaching them with respect and expressing ideas in good faith.

Bridge Building Written Communication - People can use communication channels such as blog posts, online article comments, social media, letters-to-the-editor, and call-in talk radio to promote bridge-building, to reduce the intensity of existing local conflicts, and to articulate the benefits of speaking respectfully to people with views opposing your own.

Call Out Media Promotion Of Conflict - Conflict attracts attention, and commercial media is in the attention grabbing business. Local media, newspapers, radio and TV stations, as well as national and online media, should all be held accountable for exaggerating disagreement and encouraging conflict. The media could cover disputes in a way that promotes useful dialogue rather than the counterproductive "talking past each other." This should be pointed out publicly, forcefully, and repeatedly.

Promote Cooperation Inside Underway Organizing Processes - If you are involved inside an ongoing community process, such as a bond election or a public referendum, be the promoter of unity, of setting differences aside to pursue a common goal. Take the side of the whole group by taking the side of no faction. A similar approach can be used inside community organizations, service clubs and the like. Organizations, like communities, thrive on cooperation, so be the person promoting success through unity. (Of course, sometimes things get proposed that are simply wrong. In such cases, opposition will be the right choice.)

Utilize Assistance Services - Several of the profiled organizations offer assistance to local communities in the form of facilitation services and/or training programs. Some also offer consulting in support of local advocates of cooperation. You can suggest the use of these resources to others in your community.

Push Local Leaders To Become Civility Advocates - Most leaders welcome the role of bringing people together. You can push your local community elected representatives and many others who play leadership roles in your community to speak out against polarization, vilification, and the related sentiments having such a corrosive effect on communities. This is a moral issue, and it is the responsibility of community leaders to model behaviors and leadership styles based on positive and unifying community values. "Let's work together more effectively" should be the rallying cry of leaders everywhere. But, like everyone else, leaders often need to be reminded of the values they are expected to embody. Once reminded, they should be encouraged to be brave and speak out.

Support Public Education Clarifying What Makes Self-Government Work - Advocacy is needed on behalf of history and civics curricula and adult focused public education that explains the role of compromise and the interplay of norms of restraint and temperance in American political life and history. We need a national discussion about the practices of successful self-government.

Community Envisioning - Many advocates of greater cooperation have found that long-term community planning or participatory visioning processes can promote helpful exchanges across divisions and thus promote greater unity. Such exercises can also inflame divisions, so they should be undertaken thoughtfully and with expert assistance.

Community & Trust Building Initiatives - Individuals can directly engage community antagonisms and divisions with the intention of reducing hostilities and promoting constructive discussion of divisive issues. Don't try this at home, kids. Seriously, seek experts to consult, advise and assist if you want to take this on. Done poorly, such efforts can do more harm than good.