The Common Ground Network for Life and Choice Manual

Appendix 5.1
A Case Study: The Buffalo Coalition for Common Ground
Responding to a community in crisis.
The Buffalo Coalition for Common Ground (BCCG) had its beginning during the winter
of 1992. Concern arose within the Buffalo Area Council of Churches' Board of Directors about
Operation Rescue's "Spring of Life" demonstrations planned for April of that year. Advance
publicity indicated these demonstrations would be "bigger than Wichita," and that action groups
were coming from all over the country to participate.
Out of this concern, a small group of Council of Churches Board members and staff
convened a conference for the community titled, "Community or Chaos - Learning to Build
Community in the Midst of Conflict." The conference opened with a video produced by Search
for Common Ground (SCG) called "What's the Common Ground on Abortion?” and resulted in a
decision to enlist Search's expertise to assist in developing collaborative solutions which would
benefit the community without demanding the abandonment of principles or activism
During the first year of this combined effort, a total of 70 community members attended
three BCCG-sponsored dialogue workshops. These workshops resulted in a strong desire among
participants to develop strategies for disseminating common ground approaches throughout the
community, and to explore opportunities to work together on teen pregnancy prevention and
male sexuality responsibility. Additionally, SCG and WBKT-TV, a local television station, coproduced
a television program called "What's the Common Ground in Buffalo?" This program
featured a dialogue between the executive director of Planned Parenthood and the spokeswoman
for Western New York Operation Rescue, both of whom joined the BCCG Board that year. The
Buffalo News subsequently highlighted the friendship that developed between these two women
in an article titled "Rivals Over Abortion Issue Find Friendship on Common Ground." A
videotape of the TV program has been widely distributed since then, and is among the resources
available from the Network for Life and Choice (the Network).
Taking root in the community.
In early 1994, BCCG organized as a non-profit corporation and worked to expand its
impact in the community. They continued to devise ways to support common ground dialogues.
They organized a reception for political, judicial and service leaders to explain the common
ground approach and hear about the possible ways it could contribute to addressing important
conflicts and issues. They supported an ongoing group meeting to discuss the role of male
sexual behavior/responsibility as it impacts out-of-wedlock pregnancies. They assisted in the
organization and facilitation of a workshop for the Western New York Presbytery on the issue of
homosexual ordination. Finally, they responded to a request for assistance from concerned