Getting our help

Teachers, parents and students take part in a dialogue as part of Montgomery County Public Schools' Study Circles Program to address the impact of racism on student achievement.

If you are interested in creating more democratic and inclusive problem solving in your community, we invite you to access our “how-to” resources from this web site, and adapt them for the specific needs of your community.

If you have questions about how to apply our tools and resources, please complete our Request for initial assistance form.  A member of our community assistance team will follow up with you. In our early conversations with you, we can help you assess your community’s situation, as well as your readiness to organize inclusive dialogue that is aimed at solving problems. 

In some cases, we are able to provide in-depth, ongoing assistance via phone, e-mail, and (at times) field visits. We consider a number of factors when deciding which communities will receive this customized assistance. We give special consideration to community coalitions that:   

• are making progress in creating a diverse, cross-sector working group, and in working across differences;  
  
  
• are committed to involving all kinds of people in public dialogue and problem solving;
  
  
• are developing clear goals for their community change efforts;
  
  
• are committed to exploring the racial and ethnic dimensions of the issue they are facing;
  
  
• are committed to exploring how to support and implement  key action and change steps that will come from the dialogue;
  
  
• demonstrate an openness to receiving and acting on Everyday Democracy’s assistance;
  
  
• demonstrate a commitment to sharing experiences and lessons with us;  
  
  
• demonstrate a strong potential to staff and carry out efforts aimed at creating a community that works for everyone.

In addition, we consider geographical diversity of the communities we assist, racial/ethnic diversity of leadership, and a range of issue areas.

Most of our assistance takes the form of in-kind “community assistance grants.” That is, we do not charge communities for our assistance, but we ask you to leverage the value of our grant (which we will estimate for you) as you develop a funding base to sustain your work. In addition, because our resources are limited, we ask communities, whenever possible, to help support our travel costs and to contract with one of our senior associates for facilitator training. Our senior associates also are available to provide a full range of assistance and training, on a fee-for-service basis.

If you think that your community is ready to be considered for a community assistance grant, please complete our Request for community assistance form and e-mail us to schedule a conversation with a member of our Community Assistance Team.    

Please keep in mind that because our resources are limited, we cannot provide assistance to every community that is doing good work.