Public Agenda, a research-to-action nonprofit in the US, dedicated to building a democracy that works for everyone, today announced its inaugural slate of grantees for the Democracy Renewal Project. $500,000 in funding will be dispersed to ten teams of scholars from political science and other social science disciplines to conduct practice-relevant studies showing how to achieve universal access to elections while strengthening trust and confidence in elections–two fundamental pillars vital for the legitimacy and resilience of democracy.

Don Waisanen of Baruch College, CUNY and Amy Becker of Loyola University, Maryland have created a partnership with partnership with Living Room Conversations (www.livingroomconversations.org ) to investigate whether participating in structured, small-group dialogues can increase prosocial attitudes and lay a foundation for bridge-building in communities. Don Waisanen and his colleague will also examine whether volunteer participants in dialogue events differ from the broader public and generate recommendations for increasing participation in effective small-group dialogue models. 

For more information,

https://publicagenda.org/news/drp-grantee-pr/