Ben Levi, a Bohmian Dialogue practitioner since the 1980s and founder of Zoom-based dialogue circles before COVID-19, developed a method to use Zoom’s Immersive View for virtual circles of up to 25 people. The method includes a Sentence Completion exercise where participants add words one at a time, continuing the flow of meaning in circle order. The emerging sentence is recorded in Meeting Chat until natural completion, followed by silence and 90-180 minutes of dialogue. This resource demonstrates how practitioners can adapt digital platforms to honor specific spatial and relational requirements of dialogue traditions, offering concrete examples of creatively utilizing platform features to create environments supporting depth of conversation and collective meaning-making, rather than accepting default video conference layouts that may undermine relational dynamics essential for transformative dialogue.

​The Sustained Dialogue Institute offers monthly information sessions introducing its five-stage dialogue-to-action model, developed by Dr. Harold Saunders based on international peace negotiations and adapted for college campuses in 1999. The model transforms group relationships to unlock collective problem-solving through proven peace processes applied in workplaces, communities, and schools. It provides structured pathways from dialogue to action through relationship-building and distinct stages, preparing groups for collaborative solutions. The model recognizes that addressing deep-seated conflicts requires ongoing commitment and transformed relationships among stakeholders, not just agreement on issues, demonstrating effectiveness across diverse settings where traditional methods have failed. This offering advances NCDD’s mission by providing practitioners with a structured, tested approach grounded in international peace negotiation expertise, offering monthly opportunities to explore how sustained dialogue’s emphasis on relationship-building can address specific workplace, school, or community challenges.

​Everyday Democracy’s virtual conversation, “Doing Democracy: Using Civic Imagination to Shape Our Next 250 Years,” explores how creativity, art, and community rituals fuel democratic change. Despite 76% of Americans believing the political system needs significant change, only 25% are confident it can change. The panel features Chandanie Orgias, Shawnee Benton Gibson, and Nadine Bloch, moderated by Everyday Democracy President Merle McGee. They discuss how civic imagination bridges desire for change and belief in feasibility through embodied practice, cultural organizing, and art as dialogue. The event introduces the OurNext250 gathering guide, inviting communities nationwide to host inclusive gatherings that build connection, spark shared vision, and practice democracy. This work advances NCDD’s mission by demonstrating how civic imagination transforms participants into civic agents, reshapes community connections, addresses barriers, and recognizes democracy as created through everyday actions, storytelling, and cultural organizing.

The National Civic League has launched CyberSim and Take9—a new initiative with Craig Newmark Philanthropies and Aspen Digital to strengthen civic digital resilience. Using immersive cybersecurity simulations adapted from the National Democratic Institute’s role-playing models, the program helps local governments and civic leaders understand cascading impacts, clarify roles, and build cross-sector coordination. With 44% of officials facing daily cyberattacks, breach costs averaging $6.53 million, and federal funding shrinking, communities increasingly shoulder the security burden themselves. The 2026 rollout includes in-person simulations, train-the-trainer expansion, and conference programming. By linking technical cybersecurity to public trust and democratic participation, this work advances NCDD’s mission and underscores how digital resilience is now essential civic infrastructure.

​The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation celebrates Matthew "Sagacity" Walker (they/them) as they conclude board service, bringing expertise in community engagement, youth development, and facilitation from their role as Program Manager at Everyday Democracy and Senior Associate with The Creative Discourse Group focused on racial equity. A University of Hartford graduate who worked as a Field Researcher co-designing program evaluations, Sagacity has facilitated community organizing trainings across multiple states and community dialogues on education, policing, and racial equity, contributing board expertise in equitable facilitation practices, youth engagement, and community-responsive approaches centering marginalized voices. NCDD thanks Sagacity for strengthening the coalition's equity and justice commitments while continuing to work on local and national initiatives contributing to more equitable, just, and informed communities.

​Essential Partners facilitated the Bridging the Divide on Firearm Policy initiative, where 23 gun rights and gun safety advocates created a comprehensive state-level model gun policy to reduce gun violence while protecting constitutional and due process rights. Directed by Dr. Michael Siegel from Tufts University School of Medicine, the initiative brought gun owners and non-gun owners together to develop balanced, evidence-based policies on background checks, extreme risk protection orders, dealer regulation, suicide prevention, secure storage, safety education, and community violence intervention. The 67-page policy package at BridgeTheDivideNow.org demonstrates that Americans can solve hard problems by listening and seeing each other as neighbors with real experiences, rather than adversaries in zero-sum political battles. This initiative advances NCDD’s mission by showing how structured facilitation creates conditions for groups with deep ideological differences to find common ground on contentious policy issues, offering a model for collaborative problem-solving that transcends polarization through focusing on practical solutions, building trust, and committing to data-driven approaches.

​The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s report, “AI and Democracy: Perspectives from an Emerging Field,” synthesizes insights from various stakeholders on how AI disrupts democratic institutions, elections, government, information ecosystems, civic participation, labor markets, and the economy. It positions AI as an accelerant that amplifies strengths and weaknesses across existing systems, with democratic futures dependent on rapid adaptation to ensure technological change doesn’t outpace democratic governance. The report includes an appendix mapping over 130 organizations working at the intersection of AI and democracy, offering systems-level analysis and a focus on how funders must respond to AI’s democratic implications. This work advances NCDD’s mission by providing a framework for understanding how AI shapes conditions for democratic participation, civic engagement, and institutional trust, emphasizing the importance of collective capacity to respond to accelerated change through coordinated action addressing election integrity, information ecosystem health, algorithmic accountability, and democratic adaptation across multiple domains.

Essential Partners offers a two-day Dialogic Classroom workshop for higher education faculty (June 3-4, 2026) to improve class discussion quality, create inclusive environments, foster curiosity-driven learning, and strengthen community belonging. Led by Harriett Hayes and Karen Ross, the training equips educators to facilitate productive discussions on divisive topics like the Israel-Hamas War, race and history, partisanship, gun rights, and gender identity. Research shows measurable outcomes, including better content retention, constructive participation, social-emotional competency, dialogue across differences, and community connection. The workshop teaches adaptable building blocks for dialogic classrooms applicable to various formats, addressing faculty needs for concrete strategies creating intellectual spaces where students explore complexity, listen across difference, and develop civic skills. This training advances NCDD’s mission by strengthening dialogue pedagogy in higher education, providing evidence-based approaches that honor both academic rigor and relational dimensions of learning, and building faculty capacity to prepare students for thoughtful, collaborative engagement with disagreement essential for democratic participation.

Wesleyan University is offering "Civics, Citizenship, and the American Imagination" to high school students in 16 states through partnership with the National Education Opportunity Network, taught by Khalilah Brown-Dean with 15 student teaching fellows, addressing decades of civics education decline by exploring citizenship as connection and commitment practiced through dialogue, organizing, problem-solving, and care rather than just voting or holding office. The course traces civic debates from Reconstruction to present while exploring contemporary challenges including voter engagement, media literacy, and political polarization, with students practicing respectful debate across diverse perspectives and developing final projects offering new ideas to address community challenges through policy proposals, campaigns, artwork, or local action. In Topeka, Kansas, students with beliefs ranging from Marxism to theocracy engaged immigration debates examining whether citizenship is legal status or community belonging, learning to solve problems without tearing each other down and recognizing complexity beyond partisan binaries. This initiative advances NCDD's mission by providing civics education emphasizing dialogue across differences, developing youth agency and civic vision, and treating young people as current community shapers rather than future citizens, helping students see themselves as architects of democratic futures who strengthen democracy when their voices join the conversation.