Links to Groups that Organize Dialogues
America Speaks www.americaspeaks.org
America Speaks is a national nonprofit committed to engaging citizen voices in local, regional and national governance. Their dynamic approach integrates communication technologies with face-to-face deliberative encounters that promote citizen governance through informed dialogue and collaborative, partnership-based leadership.
The Co-Intelligence Institute www.co-intelligence.org
CII promotes awareness of co-intelligence (a shared, integrated form of intelligence) and of many tools and ideas that can be used to increase it. CII organizes open space conferences, listening circles and other forums.
Common Ground www.tulane.edu:80/~so-inst/commong.html
The Common Ground program is an interracial discussion program designed to help communities confront racial and ethnic problems and find solutions. Common Ground also trains current and future leaders in dialogue skills that foster prejudice reduction and interracial conflict resolution.
Community Relations Service www.usdoj.gov/crs
CRS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, is a specialized Federal conciliation service available to State and local officials to help resolve and prevent racial and ethnic conflict, violence and civil disorders. CRS helps local officials and residents tailor locally defined resolutions when conflict and violence threaten community stability and well-being.
Conversation Cafés www.conversationcafe.org
Conversation Cafés are lively hosted conversations among small groups of people with diverse views but a shared passion for engaging with others. Held in public spaces like cafés, restaurants and bookstores, Conversation Cafés provide an open forum to talk about important topics over a cup of coffee or tea.
DIA-logos, Inc. www.dialogos-inc.com
DIA-logos promotes the spirit and practice of dialogue for strategic use at all levels of leadership within and across organizations. They work with client organizations to meet their business objectives by transforming taken-for-granted limits in ways of thinking and acting.
Dialogue and Action between the People of Iran and America www.futurealliances.com/dapia/default.htm
The DAPIA program serves as a catalyst for connecting U.S. and Iranian civil society and NGO leaders and provides a structure for guiding the process, facilitating productive people-to-people dialogue and collaboration and achieving specific and desirable objectives along the way.
Dialogue Webpage for Conflicts Worldwide www.dwcw.org
DWDC is a forum for 'online dialogue,' which aims to contribute to the improvement of mutual understanding between opposing sides of conflict throughout the world. Produced by the Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy.
The Faith & Politics Institute www.faith-and-politics.org
The Faith and Politics Institute is a non-partisan, interfaith organization which fosters community and conscience in and among U.S. political leaders. The Institute supports the Congressional Exchange, a Study Circles Resource Center program which supports members of Congress who want to involve citizens in discussion and action on race in their home districts.
Future Search Network www.futuresearch.net
The Future Search Network initiates future search conferences, innovative planning conferences used world-wide by hundreds of communities and organizations. The conferences meet two goals at the same time: helping large diverse groups discover values, purposes, and projects they hold in common; and enabling people to create a desired future together and start implementing right away.
Hope in the Cities www.hopeinthecities.org
In a number of communities across the country, Hope in the Cities initiated a process of healing which involves honest conversations on race, acceptance of responsibility and acts of reconciliation. Hope in the Cities encourages participants in conversations to go to the next steps of responsibility and reconciliation. Hope in the Cities offers its experience, resources and a process of community change.
Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy www.imtd.org
Established in 1992, IMTD promotes a systems approach to peacebuilding and facilitates the transformation of deep-rooted social conflict around the world. IMTD is based in Washington, DC and has 1237 members in 31 countries.
Interfaith Action for Racial Justice www.iarj.org
Baltimore, Maryland-based IARJ promotes understanding and tolerance among people of diverse backgrounds and traditions and strives to end racism and ethnic prejudice by fostering dialogue, creating community and engaging in action for justice.
Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington www.interfaith-metrodc.org
IFC brings together the Bah'ai, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Sikh faith communities in the Washington, DC region in order to increase understanding, dialogue and a sense of community among peoples of diverse faiths from different races and cultures, and to address issues of social and economic justice in defense of human dignity.
Karuna Center for Peacebuilding www.karunacenter.org
The Karuna Center provides education and training to transform conflict by promoting dialogue and reconciliation. In regions torn by war or conflict, they work with local groups in their own efforts to strengthen conditions for peace and justice.
Kentucky Center for Public Issues www.kcpi.org
KCPI works to actively participate in shaping Kentucky's public agenda by providing credible information and creating new forums for meaningful citizen dialogue and action regarding Kentucky's public affairs. KCPI's mission is to help citizens explore, understand, and confront issues critical to the future of the Commonwealth.
National Coalition Building Institute www.ncbi.org
NCBI offers a unique prejudice reduction methodology, based on years of development, which has been taught to thousands of leaders worldwide. NCBI-trained leaders work together in multicultural teams and empower others to eliminate the harmful effects of institutionalized discrimination, enabling groups from diverse backgrounds to work together toward shared goals.
National Conference for Community and Justice www.nccj.org
NCCJ is a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism in America. NCCJ, founded in 1927 as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, has 65 offices across the U.S. It has developed a dialogic process for use in combating bias, bigotry and racism and promoting understanding.
The National Dialogue on Standards-Based Education www.nationaldialogue.org
A nonpartisan partnership of community groups, teachers, parents, and education research organizations began this 2-year national dialogue program in April of 2001. Dialogue events will be held in other cities across the U.S., and online via the Dialogue's website.
National Issues Forum www.nifi.org
NIF is a nationwide network of educational and community organizations that deliberate about nationwide issues. NIF publishes deliberation guides on such topics as Racial and Ethnic Tensions: What Should We Do?, Money and Politics: Who Owns Democracy?, and Violent Kids: Can We Change The Trend?
Public Conversations Project www.publicconversations.org
In addition to their groundbreaking grassroots dialogue work, PCP provides trainings, presentations, and workshops on such things as the power of dialogue, inquiry as intervention, and the architecture of dialogue.
San Diego Dialogue www.sandiegodialogue.org
In San Diego County, a group of American and Mexican businesspeople and community leaders convene regularly under the auspices of San Diego Dialogue, a project the University of California at San Diegy (UCSD). These dialogues are so successful that once-intractable border and regional problems are now dealt with almost routinely.
The San Mateo Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group www.igc.org/traubman/faq.htm
Len and Libby Traubman have been organizing Jewish-Palestinian dialogue in the San Francisco area for over a decade. Their website features a 'how to' page on initiating Jewish-Palestinian dialogue groups, as well as many great articles and links. On request, they have mailed free dialogue background and guideline materials to 980 interested individuals representing 597 institutions, 402 cities, 38 states, and 32 nations. The Traubmans have spawned a number of similar, yet diverse groups in the Bay area, and their ideas are spreading into new cities and campuses.
Students Talk About Race (STAR) www.csulb.edu/centers/mcc/page7.html
STAR is a signature project of the Multicultural Center (MCC) at California State University, Long Beach.? Since its inception in November 1992, with just 15 CSULB students, STAR has trained over 400 students per semester drawn from CSULB as well as other Los Angeles area campuses (including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, and Loyola). STAR has recruited over 1,500 college volunteers, training them to become facilitators in cross-cultural communication and placing them into 76 middle school and high schools (serving some 18,000 students).? The 8-week STAR experience has proven itself to be a compassionate and candid forum, addressing difficult issues of diversity with vulnerability and humor.
Study Circles Resource Center www.studycircles.org
SCRC promotes and supports study circles (small-group, democratic, peer-led discussions, or dialogues, on important social and political issues). Their website provides downloadable copies of many of their top-notch dialogue guides and other resources.
Web Lab www.weblab.org
Web Lab develops innovative web-based projects that bring fresh perspectives and new voices to the discussion of public issues. Their goal is to use the Web as a positive, transformative force in people's lives and in society at large. Web Lab runs a variety of Small Group Dialogues, which are designed to be a departure from the anonymous, chaotic, often hostile forums often found online. The technique is designed to encourage meaningful exchange and a sense of accountability among participants.
The World Café www.theworldcafe.com
The World Café is a metaphor. It is a guiding image, a scenario of possibility, and an innovative set of tools and methods for evolving collective intelligence and creative futures. As a guiding image, the World Café helps us appreciate the importance and connectedness of the informal webs of conversation and social learning through which we discover shared meaning, access collective intelligence and bring forth the future.
