About Us
We give people the means to strengthen relationships, deepen belonging, and renew hope in their communities.
Founded in 1989, Essential Partners helps people build relationships across differences to address their communities’ most pressing challenges.
Our proven approach helps people live, work, worship, and learn better together. Through richer, healthier, more inclusive dialogue, people strengthen relationships while gaining new insight into themselves and each other as well as the problems they face together. Since our founding in 1989, we have collaborated with a diverse array of partners, including more than
- 350 college campuses
- 140 workplaces and organizations
- 400 local communities
- 100 secondary schools
We have partnered with people across all 50 U.S. States plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico as well as 29 other countries, impacting the lives of more than 500,000 people each year.
At EP, we believe that the most urgent problems can only be addressed by people who live and work together every day. The strength of relationships rooted in trust and mutual understanding empowers people to address the most pressing challenges—from partisan polarization and political dysfunction to interfaith conflicts and abortion access—without compromising their deepest values or identities. We envision is a world of thriving communities strengthened by difference, connected by trust.
Essential Partners collaborates with civic groups, schools, faith communities, colleges, and organizations to build a culture of connection, a deeper sense of belonging, as well as mutual understanding and trust across differences of values, beliefs, and identities. We do this in several ways:
- Training people in our trademark approach
- Through long-term support, coaching, and mentorship
- Initiatives to shift community or institutional cultures
- Crafting new programs and resources with our clients
- Facilitating dialogue around particularly explosive issues
- Continuous research, evaluation, and innovation
Find out more about how we work as well as who we work with, or browse our impact stories for real-world examples of our work and its outcomes.
Ready to learn more about how we can help your neighborhood, campus, faith community, or workplace? Take the first step.
Our Values
Over the course of four decades, a set of institutional values emerged organically from the work, priorities, and choices of our founders and their successors. These values went unstated, but they could be seen in our mission and programming, in partnerships with colleges and congregations, in collaborations with communities and schools, in the design of our workshops and public dialogues.
In 2023, we launched an effort to identify and articulate these previously unspoken values. The goal was to anchor our strategic and programmatic choices in a set of essential principles. The five values below are the outcome of that effort.
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The Principles of Democracy
At Essential Partners, we believe in the dignity of every person. We believe that all people have a right to live free from the threat of persecution. We support inclusive, collective decision-making because we believe that every person deserves to have a say in their future. We believe that sharing different perspectives leads to better decisions, stronger communities, and a healthier society.
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A Collaborative Expertise
One size does not fit all, and the members of a community are the best experts of their own community. We believe in equipping people to create change in their context, on their terms, according to their own values, vision, and purposes.
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Diversity and Pluralism
Hearing different voices and perspectives during important conversations—particularly those that have been missing or silent—can challenge our assumptions, deepen our understanding of one another, help us grapple with the problems we face, and spark the creativity we need to solve those problems together. We believe that diverse identities, values, and perspectives make our communities and institutions stronger and healthier.
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An Ethic of Care
Mutual care supports individual growth just as many individual perspectives support the success of a community. Our commitments to care for ourselves and for one another acknowledge our shared humanity and our shared investment in a common future.
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Hope
We believe that a better way is possible. We help communities find their way.
These five values describe EP’s four-decade journey from its founding as the Public Conversations Project to the present day. They also serve as a compass for the organization to forge its path over the years and decades ahead.
Honors & Awards
Community Peacemaker Award
Community Dispute Settlement Center, 2016
D’Alemberte Raven Award
American Bar Association section of Dispute Resolution, 2016
The President’s Award
The Southern California Mediation Association, 2006
Award for Innovative Contributions to Family Therapy
The American Family Therapy Academy, 1999
Eureka Mentor Award in Recognition of Dedication, Commitment, and Community Service
Eureka Bay Area Communities, 1999
Mary Parker Follett Award for Excellence and Innovation in Dispute Resolution
The Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, 1997