As America marks its 250th anniversary, The Forum is focused on one central question: How can citizens talk, think, and work through public issues in better ways?
At a consequential moment in our country’s history, that question feels especially urgent. The Forum creates a nonpartisan space for citizens, practitioners, educators, researchers, and organizations to engage more deeply with the challenges of democratic life—to listen across differences, examine complex public issues, and explore practical ways to work through them together.
The Forum develops, gathers, and shares methods, models, research, and practical approaches for civic conversation, issue resolution, constitutional reflection, and democratic renewal.
Our role is not to advocate for a particular political position or outcome, but to create a place where people can explore ideas, compare approaches, learn from one another, and adapt promising practices to their own work.
Better conversations. Stronger civic thinking. Practical models for democracy’s next chapter.
Join the Conversation →The Forum in Practice
The Forum is a citizen-centered space for people who want to engage more deeply in the work of democratic life.
Our mission is to reawaken, invigorate, and expand democracy from the bottom up by strengthening the citizen’s role in civic life.
We bring together citizens, practitioners, researchers, educators, and organizations to exchange knowledge, examine approaches, test ideas, and learn from work already underway.
Our work is organized around three connected areas: Conversations, Ideas, and Events—creating opportunities to move from discussion and inquiry toward practical application and shared learning.
Explore Our Work →Find a Pathway: Discover Relevant Methods, Ideas & Resources
Start with what’s most relevant to your work or experience—a method, issue, initiative, practical tool, research, video, or demonstration.
Explore related approaches, resources, and examples, compare models, and follow the connections most useful to your interests and practice.
Find a Pathway →What Does Democracy Mean to You?
Democracy is experienced and understood differently by each of us. We’ve invited people to reflect on what democracy means to them, the role citizens play in sustaining it, and what they hope comes next.
Watch their perspectives—and add your own voice to the conversation.
“Civic engagement is not a one-off, one-day thing. Civic engagement is a way of life.”
—Danielle Allen, democracy scholar and Harvard professor
Help Build the Citizen Learning Network
The Forum is developing a Citizen Learning Network—an evolving resource connecting methods, initiatives, research, tools, practitioners, and examples of democratic practice.
Its value will grow through contribution and exchange. Practitioners, researchers, organizations, and others working in the field are invited to share approaches, projects, resources, and lessons that can inform and extend the work of others.
Contribute to the Network →“The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool. It must be taught and learned anew by each generation of citizens.”
—Sandra Day O’Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Remembering Lowell Christy
The Forum’s work continues to be shaped by co-founder Lowell Christy’s commitment to thoughtful citizenship, systems thinking, careful listening, and better ways for people to work across divides.
His inquiry into how ideas, institutions, and human relationships shape democratic life remains an important part of The Forum’s foundation—and of its continuing search for practical approaches to democratic renewal.
Remembering LowellJoin the Conversation
America’s 250th anniversary is a time to look back — and to think seriously about what kind of democracy we want to carry forward. The Forum invites citizens, educators, community leaders, and others interested in civic renewal to explore new essays, emerging models, events, and conversations about how we can talk, think, and participate more constructively in democracy’s next chapter.
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