Lisa Shochat

Search for Common Ground

Search for Common Ground is the world's largest dedicated peacebuilding organization. Founded in 1982 and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, Search for Common Ground works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. We work with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies'​ capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities. Our mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict: away from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative solutions. We have developed a broad array of operational methods, which we call collectively our "toolbox."​ These include well-known conflict resolution techniques, such as mediation and facilitation, and less traditional ones, like TV productions, radio soap opera, and community organising. We have found that employing several tools at the same time increases their overall effectiveness.