Rebel with a Cause

What motivates an individual to step boldly into rooms full of angst, pain, and vitriol, with eyes and mind wide-open? What drives a person to move toward conflict with nothing more than pen in hand? In short, what motivates a community mediator?

With 20,000 exceptionally trained volunteer mediators helping nearly a million individuals each year, motivations likely abound. Personal challenge, professional development, restorative aims, adrenaline highs, and more gird the urge to sit twixt seething tension and icy stares. Variously motivated, community mediators draw upon their personal incitement to intervene and, thus, become their communities’ go-to problem solvers -- capable of engaging the most difficult, entrenched, and strained situations with exceptional competence, steely aplomb, and impressive results.

Take a peek at my own journey in joining the community mediation movement in the Association for Conflict Resolution's latest edition of ACResolutions (PDF). "Rebel with a Cause: The Making of a Community Mediator" is a short account of what moved me from the classroom to my community's fence-strewn front lines. It's also a good read for first-profession mediators who are not drawing upon and then diverting however subtlety or substantially from a decades-long career of legal, therapeutic, social, or any other work.

Have a read and then share your own motivations for volunteering as a community mediator in the comments below!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM

Research on Victim Offender Mediators

NAFCM is pleased to promote a new research project evaluating victim offender mediators' perspectives on justice. Entitled "Justice Attitudes and Motivations of Victim-Offender Mediation Facilitators," this project, undertaken by Assistant Professor Greg Paul, Ph.D. from the Department of Communication & Theater at Millersville University, will compare mediators' concepts of justice with those held by the general public.

Professor Paul is seeking victim offender mediators to participate in a short online survey to further this research. 

After his research concludes, Professor Paul has graciously agreed to share his findings with NAFCM for distribution to interested community mediation/VOM/VORP programs. 

Read Professor Paul's short description of the project:

Victim-offender mediation programs invest significant resources in training volunteers to effectively manage victim-offender meetings. Are those trainings effective? Why do people volunteer to become mediators in the first place? The purpose of this research project is to explore how facilitators’ justice attitudes compare with those of the public at large, as well as to understand why facilitators volunteer for victim-offender mediation programs. 

This confidential online survey is open to all volunteer facilitators of victim-offender mediation/reconciliation programs. In return for participation, a $2 donation will be made to the participant’s VOM / VORP organization for the first 200 participants who complete the questionnaire. Additionally, every VOM organization whose volunteers complete the survey will receive general and organization-specific summaries of responses. 

If you have any questions, please email Dr. Greg Paul. To participate, please forward the following link to your volunteer facilitators: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/283C5WL

Thank you for supporting important community mediation research!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM

NAFCM Celebrates National Volunteer Week

Community Mediation Runs on Volunteers!

Volunteer mediators serve on their communities' front lines of conflict. They supplement the work of our field's dedicated professional administrators, assist neighbors and family members with all manner of disputes, and lead by their daily, personal example of how to constructively engage differences.

Given all they do for their communities and our movement of over 400 U.S. community mediation programs, its fitting to formally recognize and appreciate their contributions. That is why NAFCM is celebrating National Volunteer Week (April 10-16) and encouraging you to do the same!

This year's slogan: "Celebrating People in Action" is a wonderful reminder to acknowledge those who do so much in so many varied ways. Community mediation volunteers donate countless hours in case development, mediation settings, and on follow-up activities. For those programs tracking these hours for financial reporting, the value of volunteers' donated time can quickly add up. (Two recognized resources for valuing volunteers' time come from Independent Sector: $21.36/hour and the Department of Labor's Occupational Employment Statistics for mediators: $25.37/hour.)    

Beyond the critical volunteer mediator role, community dispute resolution programs also utilize volunteers for administrative, clerical, training, and many other capacities. Without these generous gifts, many programs would be unable to meet their communities' needs or even maintain sustainability.  

Recognizing this fact, we encourage all community mediation programs to explore this handy Resource Guide full of ideas on how to promote your recognition of volunteers. We also invite you to post a comment to tell us how you recognize your volunteers, either this week or other times throughout the year.

Get creative, be genuine, and celebrate your own people in action today!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM