A Cross-Community Civic Coalition
Different Histories. Common Stakes. Collective Power.
A developing nonpartisan coalition dedicated to building, strengthening, and sustaining connections among communities with different histories.
Communities do not have to agree on everything to work together on important things they do agree upon.
Who We Are
Building the Connection
Shared Stake is a developing nonpartisan cross-community coalition connecting Black, Latino, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, immigrant, LGBTQ, Native American, women, and other communities.
Its purpose is to build and sustain connections among communities with different histories so they can act on genuinely shared interests without surrendering their identities, organizations, histories, or community-specific priorities.
Equal Citizenship
No community should be treated as less worthy of belonging or full participation in American civic life.
Equal Protection
Fundamental rights and legal protections should apply equally, including protection from racial targeting, religious discrimination, unequal enforcement, and other discriminatory treatment.
Equal Opportunity
Every person and community should have fair access to education, employment, economic advancement, public institutions, and opportunities to prosper.
Equal Voice
Every community should be heard through protected voting rights, fair representation, and meaningful civic participation.
Together, these principles provide a common framework for addressing discrimination and unequal treatment across communities without requiring agreement on every issue.
Our Distinct Mission
The Connection Is Our Mission
Established organizations are primarily dedicated to serving their respective communities. Shared Stake seeks to work alongside—not duplicate—their efforts.
Our distinct mission is to maintain connections among communities, provide a central place for planning around shared or comparable struggles, and build strength in numbers so no community faces a common threat alone.
Their primary mission is serving their respective communities. Shared Stake's primary mission is building and sustaining the connection among those communities.
What Participation Means
Independent Organizations. Shared Connection.
A participating organization remains fully independent. It may receive information, join a discussion, or support action on a specific issue only when its own leadership determines that doing so serves its mission and community.
Participation creates:
- No hierarchy or subordination
- No transfer of authority
- No blanket endorsement
- No continuing obligation to participate
- No requirement to change an organization's mission, leadership, identity, or community focus
- No expectation that communities agree on every issue
- No suggestion that different histories are identical or equivalent
Shared Stake does not seek to control the table or claim the headline. We are not looking for the headline. We are looking for the connection.
Our Approach
Learn First. Build Together.
Before finalizing the coalition's structure, leadership, or shared agenda, Shared Stake is speaking with established civil-rights, civic, and community organizations to learn what collaboration already exists, where connective gaps remain, and what additional structure may provide genuine value.
Listen
Understand existing relationships, initiatives, successes, and challenges.
Identify
Determine where important connective gaps remain.
Convene
Bring communities together for limited working conversations around genuinely shared interests.
Build Together
Develop principles, priorities, safeguards, leadership, and ownership with participating communities—not for them.
The Central Question
Can communities with different histories recognize and respect one another's struggles, identify the interests they genuinely share, and become a stronger collective force without surrendering their individual identities, organizations, or priorities?
Stand Beside Communities, Not in Front of Them
Shared Stake is not organized against any race, religion, political party, or group of Americans. It seeks collective attention and action only where participating communities identify a genuine shared interest, a gap in sustained cross-community connection, or a need for a collective response.
Shared Fate. Shared Action.
Start a Conversation
Shared Stake is beginning conversations with civic, civil-rights, community, educational, and institutional leaders interested in strengthening sustained connections across communities.
JW Cherry III
Founder and Convener
Shared Stake Coalition
Orlando, Florida
Phone: 407-446-4597
Email: jw@communitymandate.org