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

Building Trust Between Police and the Black Community in North Carolina

“As a black mother I participated because I want to save my son from harm, and I feared for our safety. I no longer have that fear—just a belief that my community is stronger.”

  • There is a need not only for safe space within our churches but for our church leaders who often feel alone, or who may feel their job could be at risk if they engage in controversial conversations. How are they to make safe spaces in their own congregations for healthy dialogue if they rarely experience safe space to do the same?

    Megan DeFranza
    Gordon College, Massachusetts
  • The thing that surprised me, was the amount of respect given to each person while speaking in the meeting. I thought that discussing politics would eventually cause problems, but it did not.

    High School Student
    Raleigh, NC
  • I learned to expect the best of my classmates, even when we don’t agree. I can’t write off their opinions anymore, despite our disagreements.

    Undergraduate Student
    Bridgewater College, Virginia

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

Image: Cary Academy logo
Image: Share Our America logo
Image: Starts With Us logo
Image: Southern Methodist University name and seal
Image: South Sound YMCA logo
Image: Carnegie Library logo
Image: FIS Global logo
Logo: Tufts University, Massachusetts
Image: City of Melrose seal
Bridgewater College logo
Winthrop Rockefeller Institute
Image: Newburyport Public Schools logo
Image: Roundabout Theater Company logo
Logo: The Colossian Forum, Michigan
Image: Cody WY School District logo
Image: Miami Dade College logo
Image: Shenandoah logo
Image: Revolutionary Spaces Logo
Image: Ravenscroft School logo
Image: Mass Humanities logo