As part of Mayor Paul Brodeur’s ongoing commitment to community health and wellness, the City of Melrose today announced the launch of a Community Conversations Initiative to build the community’s capacity to hold civic dialog on a range of important issues facing the City. Through the initiative, and in partnership with Essential Partners (EP) Inc., the City of Melrose will train a diverse group of community volunteers to become facilitators and conduct community conversations.

“The City is eager to launch the Community Conversations Initiative because we’ve seen how hard it has become these days to talk about the things that matter most,” said Mayor Paul Brodeur. “Like many other communities across the country, the City of Melrose has experienced a level of divisiveness in public discourse that has threatened our sense of community. Our intention is for these trained facilitators to become long-term resources that help break down barriers and grow and support dialogs at all levels, with the goal of building a more open and engaged Melrose.

EP has over three decades of experience training and facilitating community dialogs and equipping people to live and work better together by building trust and understanding across differences.

“Communities like Melrose are stronger when every resident can engage in healthy discussions of the most important issues,” said EP co-Executive Director John Sarrouf. “Healthy public discussions tap into a community’s innate creativity and resilience. Our approach helps people listen deeply, speak openly, and make connections, even when they fundamentally disagree, in order to address those tough challenges together.”

The Community Conversations Initiative is set to get underway in January 2023 and will involve recruiting, training, and deploying 20 community dialogue facilitators drawn from community leaders, City staff, and other volunteers. EP will provide training and professional consultation services to plan and implement a program of facilitated public dialogue on issues of concern to the community. 

The Mayor’s Office welcomes and encourages volunteers of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences–including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, religious or political beliefs, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender identity—to get involved by emailing [email protected] or calling the Mayor’s Office at (781) 979-4440.

About Essential Partners

Founded in 1989, Essential Partners (EP) helps people build relationships across differences to address their community's most pressing challenges. EP’s flexible and effective dialogue approach equips people to live, work, worship, and learn better together. Find out more about EP, browse a library of free resources, and register for public workshops at whatisessential.org.