The Partners family is deeply saddened by the untimely passing of our founder Raymond Shonholtz on January 7, 2012.

He was born on the 8th of June 1943 in Los Angeles, CA, and graduated UCLA and UC Berkeley School of Law. Before founding Partners for Democratic Change, he already had a vast experience in conflict management.

While teaching criminal law in the University of San Francisco, he came to appreciate that the average citizen could help their neighbours resolve disputes and that legal training was often unnecessary. Thus, in 1976, he designed and founded Community Boards, one of the first neighbourhood and school mediation programs in the US, where he trained hundreds of volunteers to address conflicts before they entered the judicial system. The program became a model across the US. He served as director until 1988.

In 1989, Raymond Shonholtz established Partners for Democratic Change understanding that new democracies needed to develop a culture of conflict management. Moving to Poland in 1991, he pursued his vision by developing conflict management programs for civic leaders, many of whom became prominent members of civil society and government. The success of the early years encouraged him to broaden the impact by establishing local Centres throughout the region. Today, Partners is a truly global organization with Centres in 20 countries,  that has worked in over 50 countries.

In 2006, Raymond Shonholtz  took active part in the founding of Partners for Democratic Change  International - an international non-profit association registered and based in Brussels, Belgium. The Network Secretariat of the PDCI members in Brussels maintains coordinating functions in addition to developing its own programmatic capacity by focusing on training, research and different global and regional initiatives.

What began as one man's vision is now an expanding, innovative international organization spanning members on four continents, with regional hubs in Brussels and Washington, DC. His rich legacy of teaching peaceful conflict resolution to emerging democracies will continue to live on.

A celebration of Raymond’s life will be held on Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 1:00 p.m., at the Piedmont Community Hall, 711 Highland Ave., Piedmont, CA 94611.  A second memorial will be held in Washington, D.C. in early March.