Community Dialogue Project

Cultivating intentional empathetic community.

The Community Dialogue Project (CDP) provides educational programs and services that promote students’ personal growth, holistic well-being, and engagement in open inquiry while supporting the development of inclusive communities at Brown and in the world.

CDP initiatives advance the development of skills and strategies for engaging in mutual understanding of issues that affect the Brown community and equip community members to engage productively in difficult conversations and relationship-building around challenging topics. Developing skills and strategies needed to engage across differences, often profound ones, is core to the institution’s academic mission and the Division of Campus Life’s strategic priorities of building inclusive community, providing developmental advising and mentoring, advancing equity and inclusion, and fostering health and well-being.

CDP initiatives equip participants to do this important work through trainings, group experiences, discussion spaces, facilitated dialogues, and direct services that promote effective communication and meaningful engagement. CDP equips participants with skills and capacities that empower them to build intellectual and personal communities grounded in greater trust and generosity, to create a more equitable and just future, and to identify and enact approaches grounded in intellectual curiosity and engagement with major questions and debates that address local and global challenges.

Underpinning CDP is a collective well-being framework wherein the well-being of individuals and the well-being of relationships, community, and society are interconnected. Rather than being a discrete skill set or practice that serves only the individual, the building of self-awareness through dialogue is essential for improving relationships, promoting an inclusive community, and promoting well-being for the community.

Discovery Through Dialogue

Brown’s Discovery Through Dialogue project reflects and expands the University’s long-standing ethos of open inquiry. By cultivating meaningful conversations among and between students, faculty and staff across a variety of viewpoints, we advance Brown’s mission to discover and preserve knowledge and understanding. The Community Dialogue Project is a pillar of Discovery Through Dialogue.

Learn about Discovery through Dialogue

Brown has always been characterized by its principled standards of intellectual openness and respectful discourse. We address differences through dialogue, debate and listening to each other. While no one can predict how national and international events will unfold and impact college campuses …, we will do everything within our power to ensure that Brown’s campus is a home where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, and is free to share their perspectives and beliefs with those who agree and those who don’t.

President Christina H. Paxson