This week, I attended an energizing and hope-filled press conference held in a local congregation’s parking lot. About seventy community members gathered on a sun-drenched but cool Monday morning to hear about the progress of an innovative tri-party association. A new preschool that held the press conference emerged from families who want their children enrolled in a quality program while they work.

With families of preschoolers, the public school superintendent, and city and state politicians in attendance, the innovative preschool model shows how local entities can come together to improve the community.

There was energy in the press conference. A mother of a boy in the preschool program explained that she could continue teaching at a local high school because her son was well cared for. Another mother detailed her anxious choice between having her children in a good preschool or staying home to care for them.

With kids, educators, pastors, grandparents, and politicians, those who gathered created a sense of purpose and renewed hope for our community. We are in a time of national peril, about which few would disagree. But here in my backyard, less than a mile from where I live, is a new association bubbling up from below, showing what we can achieve together.

Launched by Valley Interfaith Action, of which I’m a part, Valley Early Education Reimagined (VEER) is a new model seeking employers and state officials to help fund preschool expenses.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler and writer who came to the United States in 1831, described the unique way Americans create associations for their own betterment. Tocqueville’s description of associations unfolded before my eyes as speaker after speaker at the March 23, 2026, press conference explained how we in this community could work together for our common good.

The mood was positive and hopeful. Two men thanked me for a recent history lecture before the event began. But when the press conference started, I listened to every word. “Together,” a Church of the Brethren pastor declared, “We are pioneering a sustainable childcare model for Virginia.” And the mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, called us to work “together, together, together.” The mayor’s energy was the kind of civility and cooperation that James Madison described in Federalist #10, where factions in society come together, working from the bottom up, to create a better world for the participants.

This community movement, driven by diverse local people working together, offers hope that we can overcome divisions and build a stronger society.