Our Commitment to Neutrality & Accessibility

Neutrality in our facilitation is at the core of Confluence’s founding and our approach to every project. Our team brings extensive expertise and knowledge about a wide variety of policy, regulatory and operational issues which enables us to effectively manage collaborative decision making processes on almost any subject. We draw on decades of experience and a national network to identify appropriate experts, research and exemplars to inform discussions. Our team combines this expertise and research-informed approach with the often equally critical component of lived experience perspectives to ensure the balance in information presented and to maintain the neutrality of each discussion and process. We believe neutrality in both practice and perception is critical for building trust among stakeholders, for finding common ground among people with differing opinions and for building sustainable solutions with broad buy-in.

Our organization has a strict policy regarding employee neutrality in fact and perception. No employee or contractor of Confluence who has publicly taken a position on an issue, been involved in advocacy relating to the issue in the past five years (or volunteered or donated to any organization that does or has) or is part of an interested stakeholder group is permitted to manage, staff or contribute to a project that relates to that issue. We do encourage staff to be involved public citizens but we limit their work on behalf of Confluence to topics that are not in any way connected to issues in which they are, have been or may reasonably be perceived to have an established point of view on the topic or be predisposed to favor any point of view, organization or solution.

We believe that a broad range of perspectives, professional backgrounds and life experiences makes for more authentic conversations, more creative solutions to complex challenges and ideas that are more representative of the communities across each state and the nation. Confluence PSG is committed to ensuring a welcoming environment for all participants in the work groups, task forces and stakeholder engagements we lead, support and facilitate.