March 15, 2011

NAFCM Presents at Orange County Mediation Conference

Two members of NAFCM's Board of Directors will be representing NAFCM and the broader community mediation field at this year's Orange County Mediation Conference on Friday, March 18th.  This annual event gathers private, court-connected, and volunteer community mediators for some of the region's most advanced ADR training and field updates.  With Carrie J. Menkel-Meadow headlining the event as its invited keynote speaker, and many other field luminaries in attendance, such as Victoria Pynchon and NAFCM's representatives, attendees at this year's conference will be presented with a wonderful opportunity to learn and network with colleagues from throughout the SoCal region. 

NAFCM's presentation, titled: "Community Horizons: A Field-Level Examination of What's Ahead for Community Mediation Programs and Services," will be led by Dana Crawford-Lofton and Charles Chang. Dana serves as the Sr. Co-Chair of the NAFCM Board of Directors, and is the recent Program Manager of the Dispute Resolution Center at Community Action Partnership of Riverside County, California.  Charles is also a current NAFCM Board member, co-ordinator of NAFCM's new Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, and serves as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center in Los Angeles, California.  The complete description of the "Community Horizons" presentation is included below.

Community mediation is in a state of flux.  Following the latest economic downturn, community mediation programs have been forced to do more with much less, confront serious questions of sustainability, and examine their role within the broader legal and social justice landscapes.  At the same time, demand for services has continued to rise, increasingly creative programmatic partnerships are being developed, and the breadth of programs’ core services is continuing to expand.  How do these factors combine to shape the state of community mediation?  What new or continuing trends will have the greatest influence on the evolution of community mediation during 2011 and over the next five years?  These questions, and more, will be examined using the presenters’ experiences with NAFCM and the collective wisdom from participants’ own involvement within the community mediation field.  Join us during this interactive session as we explore our collective community horizons.

We hope to see many of you there!

In community,
Executive Director, NAFCM

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