About us

Los Angeles-area agency and nonprofit leaders take part in a sample dialogue as part of an Everyday Democracy orientation in 2007.

A national leader in the field of civic participation and community change, Everyday Democracy helps people of different backgrounds and views talk and work together to solve problems and create communities that work for everyone.

Using innovative, participatory approaches, Everyday Democracy works with neighborhoods, cities and towns, regions, and states. We place particular emphasis on the connection between complex public issues and structural racism. Issues addressed include: poverty and economic development; education reform; racial equity; early childhood development; police-community relations; youth and neighborhood concerns.   

Everyday Democracy was created as the Study Circles Resource Center in 1989 by The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. Since 1989, we have worked with more than 600 communities across the United States on many different public issues.

Find out how Everyday Democracy can help you start a dialogue-to-change effort.

How our work has grown

In the early years, we focused on developing a better kind of public dialogue, drawing on the ways people talk in their everyday lives. Then, we championed the idea that public talk is for everyone, and helped communities organize to bring all kinds of people into the conversation. Now we’re helping people connect public dialogue to real solutions.

Our relationship to The Paul J. Aicher Foundation

Everday Democracy is governed by The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, an operating foundation known formerly as the Topsfield Foundation; it was renamed for the organization’s founder upon his passing in 2002. In addition to its endowment, The Paul J. Aicher Foundation receives regular funding from the Aicher Family Foundation, and is a regular recipient of grants from major foundations.