Topsfield Foundation Records

The Topsfield Foundation, originally located in Pomfret, Connecticut, was founded by Paul J.Aicher in 1982. Aicher, a former engineer later turned philanthropist created a Foundation to aid grassroots citizens' groups in working against nuclear proliferation. Aicher was a close friend of peace and civil rights activist, Homer Jack, and was influenced by Jack's work. After moving to Pomfret Aicher became active in local grassroots efforts to organize a local nuclear freeze movement. During the 1980s the Topsfield Foundation granted $50,000-$100,000 a year to groups around the country working to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Recognizing a need for a way for small local organizations to find information about each other's work the Foundation began publishing the state-by-state Grassroots Peace Directories to provide networking information for these organizations and the larger peace movement. In the mid-1980s Aicher created two additional projects. ACCESS, a security information service based in Washington, D.C., served to further the exchange of information and viewpoints on international affairs and conflict transformation. Eventually ACCESS became a project of the Unitied States Institute of Peace. The second project OPTIONS was academically based and set out to improve and deepen the debate over security policy and to increase public participation in policy formation.OPTIONS was first based at Brown University and later at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s the Topsfield Foundation formed Study Circles Resource Center (SCRC), to bring together community activists focusing on community dialogue and community building through grassroots organizations. By the first decade of the twenty-first century the Foundation concentrated on the following issues: racial equity; education; neighborhoods; early childhood development; youth; poverty; diversity, immigration; and community-police relations.

In 2004 the Topsfield Foundation was renamed as the Paul J. Aicher Foundation to honor its founder. In 2008 the SCRC changed its name to Everyday Democracy. Paul J. Aicher died in 2002.