Dialogue Facilitation Training Program

For over a decade, Muslim and Jewish women from around the world have turned to the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom to learn to explore their own and others' religious identities while forming lasting, interfaith friendships within an environment of respect and trust.

Women come to us wishing to bridge divides, but they often don’t have the skills necessary to successfully engage in difficult conversations. To meet those needs, in mid-2022, we convened a pilot dialogue facilitation training with NewGround: A Muslim Jewish Partnership for Change. Leaders from six regions across the United States took part in an intensive, nine-month training dedicated to successfully engaging in and facilitating difficult conversations. They learned how to foster supportive and inclusive spaces for productive dialogue and how to help dialogue participants prioritize relationship building over consensus building, especially in difficult moments. Feedback from the first cohort was overwhelmingly positive, and we graduated a second cohort of facilitator leaders in December 2023. These projects were made possible in large part thanks to support from UpStart and the Russell Berrie Foundation.

Since the events of and following October 7, 2023 and against the backdrop of an already polarized and distrusting climate, the need for our peacebuilding work has been more critical than ever. Countless Sisterhood members have turned to us for support in navigating the current moment, and we have been recognized as a dialogue leader by outside sources as diverse as media outlets, corporations, law firms, and universities, to name a few.

We designed our dialogue facilitation program to train leaders who can meet our members' needs by guiding them through difficult dialogue in a way that breaks down barriers and opens pathways to understanding.  Through developing these skills and remaining in conversation, our members--and others--reaffirm their commitment to standing in solidarity with one another and building pathways of peace.

If you would like to learn more about our dialogue facilitation opportunities and how the Sisterhood's model might help you, please reach out to us at [email protected].