If you want to help America, start serving

As we gather with family and friends this holiday season, it’s hard to ignore the fractures in our country. The divisions we face — political, racial, economic — can make even our neighbors seem distant. These challenges run deeper than any one issue, fueled by opportunity gaps, fear and distrust.  

It’s no secret that our communities feel divided, and trust seems harder to come by. Seventy percent of Americans believe the country has become so polarized that we can no longer solve the big issues we face. These fractures make it easy to focus inward and assume that if we don’t look out for ourselves, no one will. But that’s not the kind of nation I want for future generations, and that’s not the kind of nation we are.  

It’s tempting to point fingers, to blame others for our problems. But here’s the hard truth: that will not solve anything.  

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I say this as someone who has lived and worked in Washington for two decades with many different partisan leaders at the helm. The deep distrust we feel toward each other won’t be legislated away — it has to be lived away, rebuilt person by person, community by community. Amidst the noise, there’s a quiet force that can begin to repair what’s broken: service.  

FILE: A team of AmeriCorps members live at Maggie's Place homes and assist with programming. Here, four AmeriCorps members are at a Family Success Center event. (Maggie's Place)

Service transcends party lines and differences, no matter the cause. When you volunteer to help a neighbor rebuild after a flood, teach a child to read, serve meals to the hungry, or give a year or more of your life to communities in need through AmeriCorps, you don’t care who the person next to you voted for, what school they went to, or what part of town they’re from. You’re not interrogating their views. You’re simply standing shoulder to shoulder with someone else who shares the same desire to make things better.    

At a time when the surgeon general has diagnosed us with a loneliness epidemic, and we’re connecting less frequently with people in third places like churches and civic clubs, less than we used to, we need to get creative with how we build trust and relationships. We need to see that no matter how much we disagree, there is still more that connects us than divides us. And when you serve, you’re building a bridge, creating bonds that make it harder for fear and division to take root. You’re just human beings helping one another.    

Right now, many Americans are asking, "What can we do to fix this? How do we move forward when the country feels irreparably divided?" The answer won’t come from a decree or a new law, and there won’t be a splashy solution that dominates a news cycle. But I promise you, you can find the way forward – and even better, you can take part in the hard work that’s needed, alongside everyday people far from the halls of power.   

Over the past two years, we have seen a 5.1 percentage point increase in volunteering with an organization. More and more Americans each day are stepping up. We are more united than you might think.  

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AmeriCorps members have been living out this truth for decades. Whether helping communities like Asheville, N.C., rebuild in the face of Hurricane Helene’s devastation or our 10,000 members in schools tutoring and mentoring children in need of hope, they show us that true leadership and unity don’t come from top-down solutions — they come from communities pulling together.   

An AmeriCorps member exit survey showed 88% of AmeriCorps members agreed that they were exposed to new ideas and ways of seeing the world during their service. And 95% enjoyed interacting with people from different cultures and backgrounds – whether that be someone from a different cultural, socioeconomic or ethnic background.  

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Through this work we come to understand each other. That’s the power of service. It forces us to sit in the same space focused on the same goal. And that builds something that no election, no legislation, no social media argument can: trust.   

Change is going to come from us—from stepping outside of our silos, rolling up our sleeves and doing the work of trusting, building and healing together. Imagine if every American, Democrat, Republican and Independent alike, decided to serve alongside someone from a different party, Zip Code, faith or ethnicity.

I say this as someone who has lived and worked in Washington for two decades with many different partisan leaders at the helm. The deep distrust we feel toward each other won’t be legislated away — it has to be lived away, rebuilt person by person, community by community. Amidst the noise, there’s a quiet force that can begin to repair what’s broken: service.  

Not arguing about politics but working side by side — delivering meals to an elder or filling a library for an elementary school. It won’t fix everything, but it might remind us of who we are. It might just remind us that the future of this country isn’t up to someone in a state house or capital building. It’s up to us.   

This is not a call for blind optimism. It’s a call for action — real, gritty, hands-in-the-dirt action. America has always been at its best when its people have united to tackle hard problems. Let’s get back to that. Let’s stop waiting for direction, or for someone else to lead the way. Let’s start with each other — and start giving back.  

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Because in service, we don’t just see humanity — we reclaim it.  

And isn’t that something to be grateful for this giving season?