LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A nonprofit group is aiming to bridge the division Americans have felt for several decades.

What You Need To Know

  • A nonprofit group is aiming to bridge the division Americans have felt for several decades

  • Meeting of America wants to heal the political divide 

  • They’re launching their initiative in Kentucky

  • The virtual small group sessions are from Oct. 24-29

Specifically, they want to heal the political divide, and they’re launching their initiative in Kentucky.

"Kentucky really makes sense for a lot of reasons. No. 1, we feel like this is just real America. I certainly do since it's my home," said Julie Babbage, director of Meeting of America – Kentucky, a nonprofit group working to gather people from various backgrounds and beliefs.

"There has been a change over the past few years where we've gone from being able to have difficult conversations or just conversations with others to feeling very afraid to having conversations outside of maybe a lot of our circles which feel like they're shrinking," Babbage said. 

It's a start to ignite a conversation and recognize the shared ideals, values and concerns as a way to combat the division.

"It's not at all meant to be political. It's not meant to be divisive, in fact, quite the opposite. And what we've seen in a lot of the studies so far and just some of the data we've collected in the initial rounds of this conversation is that people are very excited to not only to have participated, but their actual feelings and emotions change during the process," Babbage said.

Late last year they hosted a pilot session, this year, the first series of virtual conversations is launching in Kentucky.

"Meeting of America is important to me, because I'm concerned about the future of our country, like so many. You're seeing this in a lot of polling," Babbage said. "You're seeing this just in the way that we're having conversations with one another. We're scared for the future."

Babbage said people from roughly 60 counties are participating ranging from Pike to Franklin counties.

"People are hungry for an opportunity to come together and to be a more unified America. We just don't know how to get there on our own right now and so this isn't the whole answer, but it's a start," Babbage said.

The virtual small group sessions are from Oct. 24-29.

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