We give people the means to strengthen relationships, deepen belonging, and renew hope in their communities.
Our Impact
Karen Ramirez, Director of the CU Engage ProgramWe get more requests [for campus dialogue] than we could ever respond to.… I’m proud that our work on campus is actually kind of unusual, because it doesn’t support just one population. It supports everyone—students, staff, faculty, graduate students. I don’t know if there are other University of Colorado projects going on that hit all of our campus population.
University of Colorado, Boulder
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Paul Schupe, Hancock United Church of ChristIt’s amazing how closely we can work together on certain projects and never know what about our faith motivates our work. This work deepened my appreciation for everyone who was there; hearing everyone's stories helped me to appreciate them more and the depth of their convictions, even when they’re convictions I don’t share.
Lexington, Massachusetts
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Undergraduate StudentI learned a lot about myself from others’ perspectives—it was comforting to hear similar values and ideas expressed, yet really eye-opening and intriguing to hear very different philosophies.
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Resisting Polarization in an Election Season: A Free Resource
Partisan polarization (Democrats versus Republicans) turns our huge, complicated, diverse democracy into a political sport where everyone has to pick a side and only one side can win. In this four-part, scaffolded, self-paced curriculum, we will help you develop the internal capacities, skills, and confidence you need to become a positive force in conversations around the election where you live, work, worship, and learn.
Related Resources
News: How Essential Partners is Taking Dialogue to Scale
“Rather than bringing people out and then have them go back into a dysfunctional system, we're working to change that system from the beginning. And it's a very, very grassroots approach.”
EP Co-Executive Director Katie Hyten talks to Beyond Intractability about our theory of change, scaling our impact, the power of student facilitators, our Reflective Structured Dialogue approach—even our name change, from Public Conversations Project to Essential Partners!
Recent Partners
