Photo: People in an EP dialogue
Renew hope where you live, work, worship, and learn

We give people the means to strengthen relationships, deepen belonging, and renew hope in their communities.

Our Impact

The Pastor and the Imam: De-Escalating Religious Violence in Nigeria

Extending religious tolerance and interfaith understanding is an acute humanitarian need—and key to political stability and development.

  • Through this training, we will have more people in the stream of work that we do and become better equipped with the know-how, skills and techniques. But most important, together we will sow a seed that will germinate and become a source of the antidote to terrorism, fanaticism, bigotry and extremism.

    Imam Sani Isah
    Nigeria
  • Photo: Louise O’Kane, Community Places, Northern Ireland

    [Essential Partners’] technique is used to explore contentious or divisive issues. So looking at renewable energy we thought this was an ideal opportunity to explore all the complexities of that issue. I found it a really useful method, and although this is the first time we’ve used it I am sure we’ll be using it again.

    Louise O’Kane, Community Places
    Northern Ireland, UK
  • I've realized how putting out my ideas affects the way other people share, and I've become much more curious about others people's perspectives.

    Undergraduate Student
    Randolph College (VA)

Five Weeks of Dialogue: An Essential Email Series

This five-week email series is designed to supercharge your efforts to reduce polarization, bridge divides, and change the way people engage differences of identities, values, and perspectives. Whether you're thinking about large-scale projects or looking for small, simple, everyday tools to foster healthier relationships, you'll be able to use these skills and resources where you live, work, worship, and learn.

Photo: Four people seated, talking
Image: Scaling Dialogue Graphic

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

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Logo: Tufts University, Massachusetts
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Bridgewater College logo
Winthrop Rockefeller Institute
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Logo: The Colossian Forum, Michigan
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Image: Shenandoah logo
Image: Revolutionary Spaces Logo
Image: Ravenscroft School logo
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