Healing Connections & Collective Memory

Communities fall apart when there is little holding them together, and this is occurring right now due to political polarization. This weakening of local communities reduces the importance of individual connections, events, and local elections as individuals assign more importance to national affairs. Due to the reduction of community connections, the oral tradition of passing down stories and life experiences has been devalued to the point that it has all but died out. The lack of citizens attending opportunities to connect has also reduced community members’ impressions of one another to only their assumed political beliefs, thus driving people even further apart. By preserving and valuing individual experiences via oral tradition and the building of community connections through an exchange of knowledge, this proposal seeks to bridge social gaps and empower communities.

Historical erasure and unequal power dynamics shape whose stories are told and remembered. This creates resentment and deepens divides across lines of class, generation, and identity. For many communities, this resentment is linked to historical trauma–cumulative emotional and psychological wounding that spans generations. When only dominant narratives are preserved, communities lose the richness of lived experiences, weakening empathy and understanding. Collective memory, shaped by both the interpretation of fact and feeling, is essential in understanding how these traumas continue to affect civic trust and social cohesion. As a result, youth and marginalized groups are often disengaged from their local communities and are more focused on large-scale systemic change, forgetting that the system is meant to change from the bottom up. This can also be because they do not feel as though they receive reciprocity or tangible output from their involvement.

This proposal advocates for a community-based, project-oriented initiative focused on healing divisions through community connection and restoring collective memory through oral tradition and preservation.

Oral tradition is more than a method of communication–it is a powerful tool for transmitting identity, culture, and resilience. In many communities, especially those historically excluded from formal records, storytelling has served as a living archive. We aim to revive and revamp this tradition through preserving stories on video, honoring voices that have long been silenced, and restoring a sense of belonging across generations. Preservation of these stories, through library archives or recordings available as podcasts, not only institutionally safeguards community memory but also provides a foundation for empathy and understanding. When people hear their own histories reflected in public spaces, they are more likely to feel seen and valued. The recruitment of youth to preserve these stories ensures that participation is reciprocal since the youth will learn interviewing, videoing, question making, and audio skills to effectively carry out their duty. Younger generations will then passively absorb the wisdom of their predecessors and spread it to their peers, promoting intergenerational understanding.

These archives would be publicly available through public libraries, and one would encourage community interaction with these records by first alerting the public to their existence. This could be accomplished through the broadcasting of these conversations on local radio stations. One could also borrow the idea of US The Race Card Project, but instead of distributing cards asking people about race and identity, the project would ask individuals two things they would want to tell their great-grandchildren and two things they would want to tell their great-grandparents. These projects could become nationally available through the pre-existing parks and recreation infrastructure. This is because the Race Card Project already operates out of community spaces and works with community leaders to create community events that are accessible for all. The announcement of these archivist and knowledge exchange programs would also be accompanied by a guidebook for community leaders on how to get started and make these spaces accessible for all community members.

Opportunities for knowledge exchange work in a similar fashion. This program, however, would need an incentive to promote attendance, since the target demographic is all citizens and not just youth and elders (i.e., not workforce members). Such an incentive would resemble a tangible impact from the workshops, such as an original work of art, a collection of recipes, or trade certification under the guidance of a local expert who has had a measurable impact. This knowledge exchange program will also have a section specifically created for younger audiences. Specifically, simulation ‘games’ would be used to encourage empathy through expanding the worldviews of children. An example of this simulation would be The Hunger Banquet. Aside from increased education, a benefit of these workshops is stronger community relationships based on a common interest. As a result, individuals will develop a stronger empathy for their fellow citizens as they will better understand others’ situations after repeated exposure. Citizens could also receive a credit for each workshop they complete. The number of these credits could then translate to a title or badge, thus assigning importance to participation in the workshops, as individuals in an individualistic society are motivated by self-improvement. The process builds community, strengthens intergenerational ties, and fosters a sustainable culture of learning, respect, and civic engagement.

The impacts of this initiative are rooted in the belief that social cohesion and civic health begin with connection across generations, experiences, and differences. By centering oral tradition, storytelling, and knowledge exchange, this proposal fosters both individual empowerment and collective resilience. Bridging gaps in communities means more than just bringing people into the same space; it means building emotional and intellectual trust across generations and cultural identities. When youth engage with elders to preserve stories, they not only learn about their community’s history but also gain a sense of responsibility towards its future.

Moreover, by valuing diverse forms of knowledge—oral, experiential, and intergenerational—this proposal challenges the narrow hierarchies that often define expertise in policy making and education. It restores dignity to local histories and encourages democratic engagement that starts from the ground up. Ultimately, this policy builds the conditions for a more inclusive and participatory democracy. Communities that feel connected, resourced, and heard are not only healthier and more resilient—they are better prepared to face future challenges, to advocate for equitable policies, and to reimagine democracy as a truly collective endeavor.