Rewriting the story of polarized debate: He got Tea Party and Occupy to talk

Measuring impact is difficult, says Alison Streit Baron, manager of training and evaluation at Public Conversations Project, the partner on Laoudji's April gun program. "We call it the 'so what?' question: Does understanding each other make a difference other than in that moment?" Over time, she says, as more connections are made, there is a shift toward more peaceable conversations between groups that don't typically engage with each other. Perhaps it eventually influences policy.

But in the short term, she says, Laoudji's project may change conversations around the dinner table, at town-hall meetings, and in letters to the editor: "People [who have attended the program] are still advocating for issues they believe in, but they are doing so in a way that is less demonizing and less polarizing."

Before she started helping Laoudji recruit storytellers for the gun event, Ms. Baron was afraid of guns and people who like them.

"I thought, 'Am I taking my life in my hands by going to a gun range?' " she says.

Changing dinner-table conversations

After talking with gun owners, she sensed how demonized they feel to be linked with mass killers: "I'll now be having a different conversation around my dinner table."

For Laoudji, creating opportunities for dialogue is the first step to engaging. At a gun show in West Springfield, Mass., one gun owner told him that the US is a "Balkanized society." He felt disconnected from gun violence; yet to stop that violence, gun-control forces are encroaching on his lifestyle and ability to own guns.

"The fact that our communities are separated and not engaging in a way [that would solve problems] is a point that a lot of people would agree with, no matter where you sit on the gun-control issue," Laoudji says.

He'd like to rewrite that story.

Help efforts to establish peacebuilding and dialogue:

UniversalGiving helps people give to and volunteer for top-performing charitable organizations worldwide. Projects are vetted by Universal Giving; 100 percent of each donation goes directly to the listed cause.

Here are groups selected by UniversalGiving that support peacebuilding and dialogue:

• Asia America Initiative builds peace, social justice, and economic development in impoverished, conflict-plagued communities. Project: Support peace caravans for Christian and Muslim children.

• Rebuilding Alliance is dedicated to rebuilding war-torn communities and securing peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories, founded upon equal value, security, and opportunity for all. Project: Help families rebuild in the Palestinian West Bank.

• Global Citizens Network promotes cross-cultural understanding and interconnectedness through authentic immersion experiences. Project: Volunteer at a Mayan Center for Peace in Guatemala.

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