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Strong & Safe Communities

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Strong & Safe Communities

Communities are springboards to success and safety nets for those who fall on hard times — because those who are closest to a problem are often best able to solve it. 

Every person empowered

Stand Together’s vision is for strong and safe communities of engaged citizens committed to breaking cycles of poverty, bridging divides, and empowering every person to realize their full potential. Our work focuses on shifting paradigms from one of deficiency, in which people are problems to be solved, to contribution, in which people are sources of solutions to be empowered to find new and better ways of doing things.

Unfortunately, millions of Americans face obstacles that keep them from flourishing. Poverty, social division, addiction, and family separation are just some of the factors holding society back. Worse, Americans no longer have faith in the social sector’s ability, much less their community’s ability, to solve these problems. Social trust is at an all-time low and our communities are overcome by toxic division.

Stand Together community partners are changing the way people think about, talk about, and tackle these challenges. That includes accelerating innovations that bring new, disruptive ideas to the social sector, initiatives around the principles of empowerment, collaborations that bring people together to catalyze solutions, and storytelling and thought leadership that connects the dots between those solutions and the principles that drive them.

Scott Strode stands in a gym FEATURED STORY In this addiction recovery community, members rarely talk about addiction
Real solutions, lasting change

The Stand Together community partners with nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, and thought leaders to change the way society thinks about, talks about, and tackles challenges in communities.

110

Community organizations can now measure results on customer satisfaction and transformation.

200K

People annually are using a revolutionary peer-to-peer support method to overcome addiction.

1M+

People are being empowered annually to break the cycle of poverty.

Featured partners

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Top stories

Get inspiring stories, ideas, and advice from changemakers who are tackling America’s biggest problems in communities.

Community members posing for a group photo. How this nonprofit addresses two problems with one innovative approach

These parents showed up for their kids. Then, they started showing up for each other.

MrBeast looking at the camera. Why did this addiction recovery community impress MrBeast?

Addiction affects all of us. Likewise, we can all be part of the solution

Volunteer with safety goggles on his head while sanding wood. What the current approach to volunteering misses and why it matters

This is one key to unleashing the power of community-led change.

Scott Strode stands in a gym In this recovery community, members rarely talk about addiction

"Everybody has intrinsic strength and the ability to rise." — Scott Strode

© 2025 Stand Together. All rights reserved. Stand Together and the Stand Together logo are trademarks and service marks of Stand Together. Terms like “we,” “our,” and “us,” as well as “Stand Together,” and “the Stand Together community,” are used here for the sake of convenience. While the individuals and organizations to which those terms may refer share and work toward a common vision—including, but not limited to, Stand Together Foundation, Stand Together, Charles Koch Foundation, Stand Together Trust, Stand Together Fellowships, and Americans for Prosperity—each engages only in those activities that are consistent with its nonprofit status.
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