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Programs
The Dialogue Project/Civic Engagement Network
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The DIALOGUE PROJECT (DP) is a collaborative effort between CM and Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, Inc. (ICM), a council of 43 faith communities, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian and Baha’I congregations. In 1997, CM and ICM established the DP in response to the severe racial tensions created in the greater New Haven community by the tragic shooting of an African-American New Haven resident by a white East Haven police officer as a result of a traffic stop.
During the DP’s first eight years, more than 3,000 individuals from more than 100 organizations came together to dialogue and develop actions plans to remedy racial and ethnic discrimination in our community. The DP uses the dialogue model developed by the Study Circles Resource Center located in Pomfret, Connecticut. See www.studycircles.org. The dialogues usually progress over five sessions, moving from building personal relationships to developing joint action plans. We have held dialogues between believers from all different faiths, community-based dialogues that bring citizens of different racial and socio-economic backgrounds to the same table, and workplace dialogues that enable co-workers to discuss racial issues in a safe and productive environment.
Since the first dialogue between First Calvary Baptist Church and St. Bernadette’s Roman Catholic Church in late 1997, the DP has grown into a recognized vehicle for pro-actively addressing some of the New Haven area's most pressing social issues. After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, for example, both New Haven’s Mayor John DeStefano and Hamden’s Mayor turned to the DP to organize a series of Unity Forums in their communities to respond to a number of post 9/11 incidents that reflected anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias.
In 2002, in recognition of the success of the DP, the City of New Haven contracted with CM to administer a one-year grant on racial profiling, which the New Haven Department of Police Service had received from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services of the United States Department of Justice. For more information about the DP, please contact our DP Coordinator Penny Rogers.
In addition to the racial profiling contract, the DP has received funding over the last seven years from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Carolyn Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the Hartford Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, the NewAlliance Bank Foundation, the New Haven Register, the Regional Water Authority, SBC, United Illuminating, the United Way of Greater New Haven, and Yale University. We thank these generous organizations for their commitment to dialogue and their indispensable support
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