Bridging initiatives bring together individuals from opposing perspectives to reduce animosity, foster understanding, and encourage civic engagement. However, many organizations struggle to measure the impact of these efforts. Existing evaluation methods often focus on post engagement survey evaluations which make it difficult to capture impact on participants.

Have participants' attitudes and feelings toward other groups become less polarized?? | Are participants more open to new perspectives and supportive of democratic norms? | Do participants feel more empowered to have conversations across difference and make an impact in their community?

Without standardized measurement tools, the bridging field lacks the data necessary to determine which interventions are most effective and how bridging scales across communities..

SCIM was developed in collaboration with bridging practitioners and social scientists to provide a validated, flexible framework for measuring the impact of bridging interventions. Through pre- and post-event surveys, SCIM tracks attitudinal and behavioral shifts across a range of outcomes tied to polarization reduction, civic norms, and social connection.

Key Features: Real-Time Impact Tracking – Organizations can measure changes in affective polarization, intergroup empathy, respect, democratic norms, and bridging efficacy using validated survey tools. | Pre- and Post-Survey Analysis – Participants complete surveys before and after bridging events, enabling organizations to quantify shifts in attitudes and behaviors . | Cross-Organization Benchmarking – SCIM aggregates anonymized data across dozens of bridging initiatives, allowing groups to compare results and identify best practices .

As affective polarization and democratic erosion continue to rise, the need for effective bridging interventions has never been greater. Yet without reliable impact assessment, organizations struggle to secure funding, scale interventions, and refine their strategies . SCIM provides the first scalable, standardized framework that allows bridging organizations to demonstrate their effectiveness, fine-tune their approaches, and ultimately strengthen social cohesion through evidence-based interventions .

Since 2022, SCIM has collected over 3,000 matched pre- and post-surveys from over 2 dozen bridging organizations, revealing statistically significant improvements in: Reduced animosity toward opposing groups | Greater belief in the value of diverse perspectives | Increased confidence in having cross-partisan conversations | Stronger endorsement of democratic norms |

By 2026, SCIM aims to expand to 50+ organizations, ensuring that bridging initiatives nationwide have access to the data and tools needed to maximize impact.