PCP's work is international.

PCP’s Founders (L to R): Maggie Herzig, Sallyann Roth, Corky Becker, Laura Chasin, Dick Chasin

A family therapist and faculty member at the Family Institute of Cambridge, Chasin, with four other professionals, founded PCP in 1989. Since then, PCP has pioneered a distinctive, effective approach to dialogue that shifts communication to enhance understanding, repair relationships, and rebuild trust. Drawing upon mediation, traditional conflict resolution, and consensus building, the organization developed dialogue practices that have been tested throughout the world in conflicts ranging from religion to the environment.

PCP was initially founded as a project of Family Institute of Cambridge. In 1996, with an initial grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, PCP became a stand-alone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

A Breakthrough: PCP first entered the public eye with a series of citizen dialogues about abortion. This was followed by a highly publicized article about five years of groundbreaking dialogues between pro-life and pro-choice leaders after the fatal 1994 shooting of two women's health clinic workers in the Boston area. PCP also designed retreats that helped groups reach consenus about forest management and population and development, and facilitated conversations about human sexuality among bishops from six continents that led to recommendations to the Archbishop about how to deal with conflictual issues within the Communion.

 

In 1994, the Public Conversations Project began offering training to the public. Since then, more than 1,500 individuals have received training in facilitating dialogue and other related subjects. In addition to dialogue facilitation and training workshops, PCP offers consultations, customized trainings, and conference design.

 

Today: PCP and its diverse staff have worked regionally, nationally, and globally in 38 U.S. states and 15 countries. The organization's project work has included a wide range of contentious issues including partisan politics, homosexuality in faith communities, the Israel/Palestine conflict, environmental divides, post-genocide reconciliation, labor standards in the developing world, and racial, cultural, and economic divides at nonprofits and academic institutions. PCP’s distinctive approach continues to incorporate best practices from family therapy, psychology, appreciative inquiry, dialogue, and deliberation. 

The Public Conversations Project has received awards for its innovative contributions to the field of alternative dispute resolution from the Society for Professionals in Conflict Resolution, the American Family Therapy Association, and the University of Massachusetts Program in Dispute Resolution.