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.”

  • Essential Partners's dialogue initiative is, literally, the best forum I have attended during my time at Cary Academy. The openness and sharing in our group led to genuine connections. I’m not sure words can express how meaningful this event was to me. Truly priceless.

    Parent, Cary Academy
    Cary, North Carolina
  • It is really different than it was before. The Essential Partners process has given me the power to be heard and be seen. It’s unreal.

    James Rucker, Faculty Member
    Randolph College (VA)
  • It’s nice to talk about things that we encounter all the time but rarely get talked about. This made me hopeful that there are people who are willing to talk about serious issues.

    Undergraduate Student
    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.

Photo: Diverse group of people standing in line with an American flag displayed behind them
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
Interfaith Photovoice logo
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