How we make a difference
Convergence drives solutions to critical challenges that would otherwise remain “stuck,” and the resulting societal impact improves lives. Deep divisions make it increasingly difficult for Americans to work together to solve our biggest challenges. Since 2009, Convergence has been bringing together leaders, doers, citizens, and experts across ideological, political, and identity lines. Using our time-tested collaborative problem-solving methodology, we build trusting relationships, identify breakthrough solutions, and form unlikely alliances for action on contentious issues.
Before our projects, 53% of participants said they were willing to partner with someone whose views they did not agree with. Afterwards, this had grown to 90%.
Participants Convergence Convened
250
+
of participants reported their experience in a Convergence project was valuable as a participant and beneficial to their organization.
IMPACT AREAS
DEMOCRACY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Who are Convergence Participants?
Convergence projects are made up of leaders, doers, and experts spanning ideological, political, sectoral and cultural lines, many of whom have never been in the room together besides testifying to each other before committing to a Convergence initiative. Through our transformative process, they build trusting relationships as a foundation to identify breakthrough solutions and form unlikely alliances for long-term constructive change on seemingly intractable issues.
Convergence Programs
Drive Real Change
CALFORNIA HEALTH REFORM INITIATIVE
Use arrows to navigate.
WORKING UP
REENTRY READY
EDUCATION REIMAGINED
BUILDING A BETTER BUDGET PROCESS
LONG-TERM CARE FINANCING COLLABORATIVE
- On June 30, 2022, California’s Governor Newsom signed legislation establishing the Office of Health Care Affordability. The Office was proposed by Asm. Wood (Assembly Bill 1130) and was included in Gov. Newsom’s budget, and mirrored the recommendation issued by Convergence’s California Health Reform Dialogue in March 2020.
- In June 2021, the legislation passed in the Assembly and was included in the Assembly budget bill.In February 2021, Assembly Health Committee Chair Jim Wood introduced independent legislation to create such an office.
- In January 2021, Governor Newsom included the Office of Health Care Affordability in the state budget, mirroring the recommendation from the Convergence Dialogue.
- In March 2020, Convergence’s California Health Reform Initiative recommended that California establish a new government entity to control health care costs and affordability.
- In light of the economic collapse brought on by the pandemic, Convergence Working Up stakeholders came to Convergence in Spring 2020 seeking to reconstitute the stakeholder table together with some new voices to make a difference supporting recovery for America’s workers. In addition to short-term coordination about relief efforts, they identified two areas ripe for Convergence’s methodology:
- how to reduce silos between community colleges, corporations, and governments to create more effective skilling/quality jobs pathways for workers (Convergence Dialogue on Pathways to Better Jobs); and
- how to effectively resource and deliver childcare, paid leave, and other supports for working families (Convergence project on Supports for Working Families).
- In 2018, Dialogue participants proposed by consensus that private businesses embrace a set of actions to support upward mobility for their workforces, including access to higher education, career pathways initiatives, and predictable scheduling programs. Companies like McDonald’s and Walmart expanded their investments in workers as a result.
- In November 2020, stakeholders began organizing a pilot project in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to coordinate reentry support systems and to build the evidence base for utilizing this approach in other locations.
- In June 2019, Convergence’s Reentry Ready Project issued a report highlighting the need for coordination across various services and domains involved in prisoner reentry to aid a successful transition back to society.
- Education Reimagined involves hundreds of educators, policy advocates, students, and other leaders who are working together to collectively advance a transformational vision and spread learner-centered education innovation across the country. Visit The Education Reimagined Map for info about the learning environments they are engaging. In 2022, the organization received an anonymous $6 million grant.
- In 2019, Education Reimagined grew from a Convergence Dialogue with the same name among ideologically diverse education leaders to an independent organization widely recognized as a leader in an emerging movement focused on learner-centered education.
- In November 2021, the House passed, with broad bipartisan support, H. Con. Res. 44, the Fiscal State of the Nation Resolution, introduced by Representatives Kathleen Rice (D-NY) and Andy Barr (R-KY). The resolution requires the Comptroller General to present the report in an annual joint hearing of the House and Senate Budget Committees and open to all Members of Congress. The resolution aligns with the recommendation advanced by the Select Committee.
- In November 2020, the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress embraced a range of budget process reforms recommended by the Convergence-facilitated group and included them in its report to Congress. The Select Committee aims to advance the bipartisan proposals in the 117th Congress.
- In October 2020, the Select Committee issued a report, with unanimous bipartisan support, that included 97 recommendations to make Congress work better for America. One chapter of the report, “Reform the Budget and Appropriations Process,” outlines the Committee’s recommendations for improving the budget process. The proposals incorporate most of the elements of the Building a Better Budget Process consensus recommendations, including a Fiscal State of the Nation report that would allow Members of Congress to “have access to nonpartisan information about the many factors contributing to the nation’s debt and deficit in order to develop sound fiscal policies and meet our long-debt and deficit reduction.”
- In February 2018, Convergence’s Building a Better Budget Process project developed practical, politically realistic proposals to improve the process Congress uses to manage the federal budget. The proposals received significant, immediate attention from the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform.
- The pandemic highlighted the need for additional work focused on America’s outdated systems for caring for older adults. In July 2021, Convergence launched a new Dialogue on Reimagining Care for Older Adults, involving nursing home operators, home and community-based service providers, representatives of the caregiving workforce, and more. The Dialogue will advance ideas to transform the system of care to allow more Americans to age at home or thrive in a setting best suited to their needs.
- In July 2021, legislation to create a public catastrophic plan based on the Convergence agreement was introduced in Congress by Rep.Tom Suozzi (D-NY). Three Convergence Dialogue participants were members of the five-person advisory group that designed the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act.
- In 2018, Convergence’s Long-Term Care Financing Collaborative contributed to the creation of a major new computational model to analyze the budgetary impacts of long-term care reforms and forged a unique agreement in support of catastrophic long-term care insurance.
