Gov. Cox talks faith, efforts to unite citizens at 2025 Kindness Summit

SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Spencer Cox spoke to local leaders and others about using kindness to overcome differences at the second-annual Kindness Summit on Friday.

For the second year since its launch, Cox attended the summit as an expert kindness speaker and shared a message about the importance of kindness in both society and politics.

"Kindness has never been less en vogue, at least in my lifetime, and never been more needed. Especially in the political realm," said Cox. "I'm grateful to ... live in a state where we lead the nation in service and volunteering and charitable giving. It makes us different.
It makes us unique in all the best ways."

He went on to explain that he believes what sets Utah apart from other states is the faith of its residents. People who believe in something bigger than themselves are happier and build stronger communities no matter what religion they belong to, according to Cox.

"There's no question that our culture becomes more corrupted ... as we become more focused inward on ourselves. Not in making ourselves better, but in making ourselves feel better. Those temporary dopamine effects that we get from watching cable news or saying terrible things about each other on Twitter or Facebook, they're corrosive, they're addicting," Cox said.

As chairman of the National Governors Association, Cox launched the Disagree Better initiative in 2024 to reduce political polarization through conflict resolution so disagreement would result in solutions rather than divides. The initiative created a collection of social media ads that featured governors with conflicting political views talking about healthy disagreement and respect for others.

A Stanford depolarization lab analyzed the public reaction to the ads and found that viewers not only felt less polarized after watching them but also felt less violent toward the other side, according to Cox. He used this as an example of how being more understanding and willing to choose kindness over anger will bring Americans back together.

"What we need today more than ever are people who are willing to do one kind act today. That's how we change the future of our country. We don't change the world by thinking we're going to change the world; we change the world by changing our neighborhoods and our communities," he said.

Cox also acknowledged the impact of the SOLID program being used at the Utah State Correctional Facility for improving the culture of kindness for prisoners and prison staff. SOLID, which stands for Successful Offenders Learning Individual Development, is a peer-led self-improvement initiative for inmates to support and coach one another with staff support as they aim to create a better culture in the facility.

The program was developed by inmates after the prison was moved from Draper to Salt Lake City in 2022, according to Cox. He explained that the transition caused a greater strain on staff, and the system needed improvement.

"We needed to change the culture, not just the culture of the correction staff, but the culture there at that facility. And so what did they do? They asked the prisoners what they should do, and they came up with the SOLID program," said Cox. "It takes real humility to listen to the criminals who are incarcerated, who can tell you a better way to do things."

Other speakers at the summit also highlighted One Kind Act a Day's partnership with Juvenile Youth Services to create a mural of kindness. At the Slate Canyon Youth Center, artists mentored youth and helped them create a mural entitled "A Time of Kindness and Healing." A similar project was done at the Farmington Bay Youth Center, which reported zero incidents for a consecutive nine months after the project, which had never happened before, according to One Kind Act a Day.

One Kind Act a Day is an initiative to change the world through kindness, created by the Semnani Family Foundation. In addition to hosting the Kindness Summit, they work with various schools, governments and businesses in the state to foster more understanding and compassionate communities.

Cox ended his address with a plea to improve the cultural atmosphere through love and kindness, emphasizing kindness is a demonstration of strength.

"Please, please, please, help us improve the atmosphere in our country today. Whatever your faith is, double down on it, practice it harder. Show that love and kindness, push back against the narrative that the kindness is female-coded ... or weakness, it is not," said Cox. "The strongest people I know are people who extend a hand when they know how to make a fist, and we desperately need more of those people."

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