Amanda Barker and Randy Bretz were our speakers at Lincoln South Rotary Club on July 10 2026 - their presentation was "Help Us Weave our Social Fabric Back Together".
Amanda and Randy started their presentation with a quote"
"We can invest millions in education, healthcare, economic opportunity, climate change, racial equity, and more . . . but we will not get where we need to go if we don't also invest in trust."
- - David Brooks
Randy shared that not long ago he was at a gathering tat inclued:
a Biochemistry professor
a vice president of lending for a credit union
a nurse,
a cake decorator
a retired band director
a medical lab technician
someone from the Federal Reserve bank
a physician
and a software engineer
It was a group of people weaving the social fabric of Lincoln.
These and dozens more are members of the Lincoln Community Concert Band and they were taking part in a concert. They gather weekly to rehearse and they offer four free concerts each year.
There were men and women of all ages. They have different political backgrounds, a variety of religious beliefs, no doubt a wide variety of philosophical interests . . . yet they’re together weekly. This group is a great example of the sense of belonging, the sense of working together for the common good, the sense of the strong foundation of our social connection that give us a solid base upon which to build our future.
Randy shared that Fifty to 100 years ago our society was focused more on our commonalities than our differences. Dads were leaders in the communities where we lived, They participated in Kiwanis, the Optimist club and Rotary - that’s what was expected of them as a community leader.
The presentation was to share a national project that is seeking to build on the attributes described above - bringing us back together again. It’s called Weave, the Social Fabric Project we have an opportunity right here in Lincoln to participate.
Amanda Barker presented most of the rest of the materials, including the details on the Weave Project in Lincoln.
The Aspen Institute (a nonpartisan nonprofit in Washington DC) first incubated this idea of Weave: The Social Fabric Project when David Brooks, columnist for The Atlantic (formerly NYTimes), realized that you can’t scale trust at a national level….but relationships build trust, and you can scale relationships.
Brooks referred to weavers as those that are natural relationship builders. He suggested investing in social capital and trust that the relationships that are then produced.
The Weave Institute was born. This nonprofit started the Weaver Awards in three communities: Baltimore, MD; Wilkes County, NC; and northwest Arkansas and learned a great deal about how to incentivize this work in local spaces—but also realized that a DC based nonprofit perhaps wasn’t best suited to implement the program in local spaces. Thus, they put out a call for Community Hosts….and the Lincoln Community Foundation answered that call.
The Weave project is coming to Lincoln, to recognize the ordinary members of our community who connect folks, day in and day out.
The project is looking for Weavers who gather folks around a communal table (neighborhood potlucks! Coffee shop groups! Bridge clubs!), for Weavers who form peer support groups (parenting/grieving/etc.), and even special interest groups (entrepreneurship! music! Art! Games!).
A good candidate for the Weaver Awards is characterized by four qualities:
- Local. The work is done here, in Lincoln. It can be as hyper local as a city block, or a neighborhood, or be city-wide. But it can’t be an effort on the state or national level.
- Mutual. The project creates opportunities to both give and receive. This is not a service project.
- Welcoming: This person and their efforts to connect folks should invite people to join, as they are. As inclusive as possible.
- Continuous/relational: The Weaver and their project should aim to build relationships that deepen over time through ongoing engagement
In order to identify these Weavers, there is an application and a nomination process. Applicants can self-identify or be nominated, but they must fill out the short application form by August 10th. It truly is a short process—30 minutes or less. Nominators have an even simpler process (roughly 15 minutes worth of your time)—three questions about the Weaver you know.
Applicants must be 18 or older, and they must base their social connection project in Lincoln/Lancaster County. Individuals can apply, or small nonprofit organizations (annual budget must be $250,000 or less).
A committee of community advisors will review each application and select 20 Weavers this year, to be announced in the fall. Each Weaver will receive a $4,000 stipend to enact their project that connects folks throughout Lincoln. Lincoln Community Foundation will lift up the work they are doing, connect them with one another and with resources, and do this all again next year….and for two more years following that. By 2030, we’ll have identified 80 Weavers in Lincoln—and we’re so excited to share their stories.
Consider who in your life is a Weaver, and to support their work—with encouragement, with resources, and perhaps even a nomination for the Weaver Awards.
Related information and stories:
From Randy prior to meeting:
There’s little doubt that we live in a divided society. We see it in our national politics and feel it in the digital walls we build around ourselves. But here in Lincoln, we have a unique opportunity to push back against the tide of isolation. We can move beyond merely living alongside one another and start intentionally weaving our lives together, build a stronger community and have a positive impact on the future of our country.
One of the most promising initiatives currently taking root is the Lincoln Community Foundation’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project. Through this initiative, small grants can help foster projects by individuals and organizations which will bring us together as a community. And in doing so, we’ll be setting an example for people across the United States.
Lincoln Community Foundation Community Director of Community Engagement Amanda Barker, and one of Lincoln’s more connected citizens, Randy Bretz will present how this unique project came to be and how people of Lincoln can be involved.
Lincoln has always been a city of connectors and builders. We worked together to build a world-class university, a vibrant downtown, and a park system that is the envy of the Midwest. But the most important thing we can build today isn't made of brick and mortar. It is made of trust, shared stories, and the quiet, persistent work of weaving a community where everyone belongs.
Amanda Barker is Director of Community Engagement with the Lincoln Community Foundation and project director for the Foundation’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project. In recent years she’s served as an advisor to Lincoln’s Mayor, Director of Civic Health Programs with Civic Nebraska, and work with the Nebraska Tourism Commission.
Randy Bretz is an experienced and innovative leader/administrator with background in communications of all sorts, sales and marketing, business administration, and education administration. I'm active in retirement teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan University, involved in Lincoln's downtown Rotary Club, helping encourage people to weave together our social fabric and serving on a number of boards.
