2012 Year in Review

Happy New Year, Community Mediation!

2013 marks NAFCM's 19th year as the Voice of Community Mediation, and we're planning to take that voice into some pretty exciting new directions! Before we do, however, let's take a look back at some of our notable 2012 accomplishments... countdown style!  

10. New Member Benefits

As a member-supported organization, NAFCM is always seeking ways to support those who support us. Our growing package of member benefits is one way we're pleased to say "Thank You!" In 2012, we added several new options, including the ability to secure professional email addresses for all NAFCM members and the continued discount on Mediate.com's Case Manager for program members.

9. Community Calendar

Community mediation happens. When and where it does, NAFCM has it scheduled! This past year we continued to expand our Community Mediation Calendar by freely promoting over 600 local community trainings, gatherings, and celebrations. 

8. Conference Circuit

Each year brings a new slate of exceptional international and regional ADR conferences. This past year we had the pleasure of connecting with community colleagues at the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, ACR, and SCMA annual conferences. We're planning even more gatherings for 2013! 

7. Webinar Series

2012 was a smashing success for NAFCM's new Community Mediation Webinar Series. We hosted over a dozen sessions on all manner of topics, most of which were FREE for current members! Moving into 2013, we'll continue to expand our offerings, including access to recordings from many of our archived events.

6. Publications Revisions

Early in 2012, NAFCM concluded the monumental task of completely revising many of our key publications. Thoroughly updated to reflect the field's evolving wisdom, NAFCM now offers the most up-to-date set of community mediation guides available anywhere. Moving into 2013, many of these will be available digitally to current program members! 

5. PeerMediators.org

Constructive youth-focused conflict resources are a must-have in today's schools. This past year, NAFCM collaborated with APADRC and Wendy E. H. Corbett to develop a new set of peer mediation resources that are now freely available to schools and community mediation programs everywhere. Available at PeerMediators.org, these training manuals, implementation guide, and digital resources, have already been shared with colleagues literally across the globe!

4. New Board Members

NAFCM is driven by the creative energies and dedicated work of its exceptional Board of Directors. This past year, NAFCM grew its Board by 50%, adding five inspiring field leaders and plenty of new energy to our continued renaissance. Our Board now includes representatives from 12 states and D.C. 

3. Outreach & Policy Committee

Capitalizing on the increased size and energy of the NAFCM Board, 2012 saw the establishment of our Board-level Outreach & Policy Committee. This committee will tackle some pretty important issues, including a number of pressing community mediation advocacy and public awareness initiatives. New Committee members are always welcome!

2. State of Community Mediation

For the first time in nearly a decade, NAFCM has outlined the contours and complexity of our field in its State of Community Mediation report. This extensive review included the contributions of over 100 field leaders and includes dozens of never-before-reported statistics about who we are and what we help our clients and our communities achieve. The entire report is freely available online and has been the subject of numerous presentations throughout the preceding year.

1. NAFCM Clearinghouse

One of NAFCM's top focus areas for 2012 is about to make 2013 unbelievably exciting! The NAFCM Clearinghouse, a digital, crowd-sourced collection of 6,000+ resources for and about community mediation, is now ready for its grand debut! Stay tuned to NAFCM's discussion group for release details and take a sneak peek at all that we've included.

Here's to an amazing year ahead!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM

ABA Dispute Resolution Conference Recap - Day 2

Following Thursday's many activities, Friday's agenda followed-up with its own packed and powerful set of sessions. Below is a short recap of the various sessions I was able to attend.

Violence Interrupter Extraordinaire

Kicking off the morning was a buttoned-down bowtie paradigm-shattering plenary presentation by Cobe Williams. Unlike the many business-card-collecting, for-hire ADR practitioners who sat with rapt attention, Cobe employs conflict engagement on the often unforgiving Chicago streets as a Violence Interrupter with the innovative CeaseFire organization.

Featured in a new and roundly acclaimed documentary "The Interrupters," Cobe shared a number of clips from the video detailing his involvement interrupting an imminently violent situation. Throughout the clips and his supplementary commentary, Cobe spoke in a familiar language about his decidedly foreign context. "Preparation," "party self-determination," "trust," "neutrality," "honest listening," "flexibility." These words perfectly reflect the activities and values held by high-rise mediators. They also resonate perfectly with the high-stakes, gang-involved, gun-wielding conflicts in which Cobe skillfully intervenes, often with lifesaving consequence.

For folks interested in learning more about Cobe's work and that of other violence interrupters, I strongly encourage you to attend a local screening or buy the DVD of "The Interrupters." They have also created a supplementary website full of resources, including a community engagement guide (PDF).

Model Forms

From the tough streets to staid courtrooms, I moved next into a session titled: "Some Assembly Required (But Not Much): Model Materials and Their Ideas for Program Design and Evaluation." Hosted by Timothy Hedeen, and featured a panel composed of Philip Moses, CADRE; Jennifer Shack, RSI and presenter of NAFCM's two-part webinar Making the Most of Your Data; and Donna Shestowsky, UCDavis School of Law. The session recounted a number of ongoing projects to produce model forms for use with court-related and specialty mediation contexts. (This session was of particular interest because of NAFCM's own plans to develop model forms for community mediation programs! Stay tuned...)

In addition to a recap of how these projects were developed, Donna also provided a review of some new research she's undertaken that evaluates the attractiveness of different dispute resolution procedures for those in conflict. Her research, which is still being processed, gathered extensive pre- and post-survey responses from over 400 actual disputants from throughout the country who were involved in active court filings. Some of the more interesting findings she was able to report, included:

• The difference in attractiveness between mediation, attorneys' negotiating with clients present, and a judge trial were all statistically insignificant.
• Possible predictors of procedure attractiveness that were evaluated, included: case type, role in case, party type (individual, organization, etc.), opposing party type, defendant or plaintiff, gender, ethnicity, age group, insurance involvement, future relationship, estimated probability of winning, and court location. Interestingly, NONE of these variables predicted how attracted litigants were to using mediation! (If this finding holds throughout her final assessment, it would serve as a strong suggestion to mediation advocates that alternative selling points should be highlighted when attempting to attract parties to the mediation table.)

Mediation in the Arab Spring

Part of the inspiring nature of Mediators Beyond Borders is its ability to connect colleagues and ideas across traditional boundaries. This inspiration was on display in full force during a session titled: "Can Mediation Take Root in the Arab Spring?." Facilitated by Lynn Cole, MBB's new Board President, the session included powerful presentations from women throughout the Middle East, including Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. They each spoke about how mediation and ADR services generally could help enhance their local citizenry's access to justice, and how it could open important dialogues. "As greater acceptance of free expression fills the Middle East," one speaker proffered, "the need for the facilitative tools of dialogue increases."

MBB & Israel's "Mixed Cities"

Rounding out the conference on an international theme, my final session was another MBB event titled: "Cross Cultural Narrative Transformation in Israel's 'Mixed Cities'." This session featured a short intro to narrative mediation, and a more thorough review of one of MBB's projects to support community mediation programs in Israel.

Community mediation has a strong foundation in Israel with 24 local programs, a financial supporter in the Gishurim, and central training and technical assistance coordination offered through Nurit Bachrach's Mosaica Center for Conflict Resolution. MBB's original project involved developing a training curriculum for Jewish-Arab co-mediators to mediate Jewish-Arab disputes. As MBB continues their connection with our Israeli counterparts, additional support is being explored, including possible adoption of Mediate.com's Case Manager via NAFCM's member pricing, and a more formal exchange of experiences between Israeli and U.S. community mediation programs. Both of these possibilities are terribly exciting, and I look forward to seeing how they develop!

While there wasn't enough time to thoroughly unpack the concepts of narrative mediation, a few key points were shared that caught my attention, including:

• Narrative mediation helps us reduce the clarity of rigid, dualistic, and localized conceptualizations of the world, and then helps rebuild a more dynamic, complex, and global understanding.
• Narrative mediation helps complexify one's narrative. That complexification broadens perspective and helps one gain agency over the conflict rather than the other way around.
• A new Center for the Study of Narrative and Conflict Resolution has been established at George Mason's S-CAR.

Finally, this session also included an elegant vision for Mediators Beyond Borders, which I captured as: "In response to conflict, rather than sending military might around the world, MBB seeds and supports mediators' minds." This is a wonderful description of the great work MBB performs under the strong leadership of our good friend and colleague Charlie Pillsbury. In as much as their vision dovetails with NAFCM's own mission to support peacemakers, I personally look forward to discovering opportunities where our collective efforts may enhance our respective aims.

Community Spottings

Regularly billed as the world's largest ADR conference, this year's gathering included a number of our community mediation friends and aligned colleagues. Some of the hallway spottings included: Alyson Carrel, Center for Conflict Resolution (Chicago); Cheryl Cutrona, Good Shepherd Mediation Program (Philadelphia); Lou Gieszl and Rachel Wohl, MACRO; Alan E. Gross, New York Peace Institute (NYC);  Timothy Hedeen, NAFCM Elder; Sandy Heierbacher, NCDD; Megan Johnston, Northern Virginia Mediation Service (Fairfax); Mark Kleiman, Community Mediation Services (Queens, NY) and NAFCM Elder; Jim Melamed and Clare Fowler, Mediate.com; Jody B. Miller, Mediation Center of Dutchess County (Poughkeepsie, NY); Charlie Pillsbury, MBB; Cobe Williams, Violence Interrupter with Cease Fire (Chicago); and Susan Yates, Jennifer Shack, and Heather Scheiwe Kulp, RSI. There were likely many other friendly passings and wonderful smiles that've I've missed here, and for that, my sincere apologies. (Feel free to jog my feeble mind in the comments below!)

If you weren't able to join us in D.C. this year, I hope you'll be able to be part of the Section's 15th Annual Spring Conference in Chicago on April 3-6, 2013! I'll be there taking notes, representing our community network, and (hopefully) catching up with you in the hallways!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM

ACR 2011 Annual Conference - Daily Recap #3 (Part 2)

The afternoon sessions and evening Section's gathering were full of community-worthy updates and definitely deserving of their own post. Read on for updates and plenty of helpful links...

Mediate.com

Always the technology powerhouse at ADR gatherings, the peerless Mediate.com was solidly represented at ACR this year by its near-rockstar-status CEO Jim Melamed and the supremely knowledgeable and helpful Clare Fowler. (Does that earn me "Featured Blog" status?!) In addition to helping conference colleagues setup websites and streamline case management, these two also presented one of their reliably visionary presentations titled: "The Future is Here - Online Marketing, Case Management, and Case Communication." Though I was unable to attend, post-session buzz about their mention of NAFCM's partnership with Mediate.com quickly reached me. This partnership provides current NAFCM program members an up to 67% discount on the standard-setting, cloud-based Case Manager and a nearly 20% savings on their ubiquitous Dynamic Websites. In case you, like me, missed the future, you can always catch one of Mediate.com's Case Manager webinars, which are comfortably accessible from your own chair and futuristic hover chairs! 

Peacemaker Award

Kicking off the afternoon plenary was the presentation of ACR's Peacemaker Award, accepted this year by W. Timothy Pownall* on behalf of the Straus Institute's PRACIS Project in Faith Based Diplomacy. Tim is a gifted mediator and tireless champion of peace. In addition to his work with the Straus Institute, he also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution in Reseda, California. His extensive work both near and far should inspire us to embrace our shared humanity and discover opportunities for peace wherever we find ourselves. 

*Tim, along with his administrative right-hand-man and all-around-great-guy Chris Welch, actually gave me my first introduction to community mediation during an internship with CCR while I was completing Straus' Master of Dispute Resolution program. It was great to catch-up with both!

Journey from Mediation to Peacemaking

Moving next into Woody Mosten's plenary presentation, participants were challenged to conceptualize their work as more than mere resolutions to be packaged, consensed, signed, and triplicated. Instead, he encouraged us to view our work through a peacemaker's lens; a lens that takes both the long and deep views of human interaction and humanity's potential. 

Woody's challenge reminded me of the philosophical and promotional diversity found throughout the estimated 400 community mediation programs operating within the U.S. alone. Though equally responsive to their specific community's needs, programs vary widely on the motivating focus of their programming (e.g. emphasizing 'restoration,' compared to 'resolution') and the public image they cultivate (e.g. doves of peace, compared to scales of justice). Rather than bifurcate and strain our connections, however, these differences enrich our field and allow us to attract and introduce the constructive potential of mediation and other conflict-assistive services to wider audiences than any single approach alone would otherwise achieve. 

Increasingly this blended approach is not only visible at the macro level, but also within individual programs. Traditional community mediation programs are adding restorative processes to their service portfolio, and many restorative justice programs now also offer more traditional ADR processes to their communities. This blended approach is likely motivated by a number of economic, social, and pragmatic considerations, but the end result is a field more connected and with a greater capacity to assist those seeking justice of its varied alternative, informal, restorative, social, and other technicolored manifestations.

Real Dialogue in Restorative Justice

With so many exceptional presentations, many were frustratingly out of reach for any single conference goer to attend. Thankfully, I received updates from several colleagues in between sessions, such as Karmit's review of Rochell Arms A. and Jessica Hillard's "Creating Space for Real Dialogue in Restorative Practices - A Tale of Two Programs." Joined also by Bernard Le Roux via recorded video from Sweden,  this session outlined the use of adult victim-offender mediation for conflicts involving assaults, restraining orders, and pending criminal proceedings. Karmit shared her interest in the programs' acknowledgement and processing of reciprocal victimization often created in tit-for-tat escalated conflicts. This approach allows the participants to garner a deeper understanding of not only how they were harmed, but how they may have also harmed another and how the parties can collaboratively work to repair their collective harm. 

God in the Process

Karmit also shared a quick update on a session focusing on the presence and impact of religion within various conflict-assistive services. This session, "God in the Process: Is there a Place for Religion in Conflict Resolution Processes?," presented several examples of religion interlaced with conflict-assistive services, such as Ho'oponopono and those catalogued by Harvard's Global Negotiation Insight Initiative. While there are a number of community mediation programs directly affiliated with a specific religious institution or tradition (e.g. St. Louis Mennonite Peace Center and Jewish Community Justice Project), most programs' secular neutrality is professionally agnostic to yet personally respectful of participants' religious persuasions, specifically as they may relate to the substance or processing of a given conflict. This openness to and encouragement of mediation participants drawing upon their sources of strength is an example of how these programs embrace their communities' diversity and empower those burdened with harmful conflicts.

Missed Opportunities

Even with these additional updates, several more sessions were just out of reach but deserve notice. These included Jodie H. Jones' presentation on "Inviting Forgiveness into Restorative Justice Processes while Upholding Impartiality." The panel presentation on "Community Integration of Gang Members in the Bay Area: Understanding Gaps in Policy and Social Interventions." And Justine Darling and Jack Hamlin's "Peace Circle Use in Large Scale Community Conflict: A Case Study." 

If any readers were able to attend these or other sessions of note, I encourage you to share your take-aways in the comments section below for our colleagues who were unable to join us in San Diego.

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM