Frequent Partners

The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) is at the center of a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future.

The Initiatives for Democratic Practices foster the use of deliberative practices in their communities. While any group or organization can pursue such an aim, participants in the initiatives described here have taken part in a sustained exploration of these ideas and practices in learning exchanges at the Kettering Foundation. The initiatives are the most recent expression of a more than 30-year commitment and join the Centers for Democratic Public Life and the earlier Public Policy Institutes (PPIs) in their work with citizens. All share the premise that democracy is an ecology in which people in communities work in complementary ways with one another and with institutions to address public problems. These initiatives, centers, and PPIs often reside within professional or civic organizations and institutions, including colleges and universities, libraries, and humanities councils.

The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks nothing less than to spark fundamental change and authentic hope in American public life.

The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) helps citizens around the world transform deep-rooted human conflicts into constructive relationships, which are the foundation of effective decision making and peace building. Founded in 2002, based on over 30 years of experience and research, IISD provides space and a systematic change process through which citizens in communities and in organizations face the causes of conflicts and overcome them.

The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) actively promotes learning and collaboration among practitioners, public leaders, scholars, and organizations involved in dialogue, deliberation, and other innovative group processes that help people tackle our most challenging problems.

National Issues Forums is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues. These forums, organized by a variety of organizations, groups, and individuals, offer citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, to make choices with others about ways to approach difficult issues and to work toward creating reasoned public judgment.

Public Agenda, an innovative public opinion research and public engagement organization, works to strengthen our democracy’s capacity to tackle tough public policy issues. Nonpartisan and nonprofit, Public Agenda was founded by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in 1975.

The mission of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN) is to develop everyday leaders who engage differences as strengths to improve campuses, workplaces, and communities. SDCN envisions a world in which all people have the tools to create the communities they dream of so people of all identities can thrive.