Country:
U.S.A.

Language:
English

Former co-chair of the National Association for Community Mediation in the US, was involved in community mediation for 14 years developing a range of community mediation programs at the New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution .

WHAT IS MEDIATION: A PERSPECTIVE FROM COMMUNITY MEDIATION *

Given the current discussion concerning the merits of settlement driven "problem
solving" mediation, "evaluative" mediation, and "transformative" mediation, the perspective of community mediation has always been that mediation accomplishes a range of goals. The lesson of the "Goals of Mediation" game is that bringing people together - whether in interpersonal or multiparty disputes - can result in a number of outcomes.

How do community mediation practitioners define mediation to the public? The brochure developed by the National Association for Community Mediation defines mediation as follows:

Mediation is a process of dispute resolution in which one or more impartial third parties intervenes in a conflict with the consent of the disputants and assists them in negotiating a consensual and informed agreement. In mediation the decision-making authority rests with the parties themselves. Recognizing variations in styles and cultural differences, the role of the mediator involves assisting the disputants in defining and clarifying issues, reducing obstacles to communication, exploring possible solutions, and reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement. Mediation presents the opportunity to peacefully express conflicts and to "hear each other out" even when an agreement is not reached.

It is not the role of the mediator to advise the arties of the strengths and weaknesses of legal claims. That is a lawyer's job. It is not the role of the mediator to develop and propose a settlement to the parties and encourage them to accept it. That is a settlement facilitator's job. There is consensus within the community mediation that "evaluative mediation" is an oxymoron.1

Research consistently shows that parties favor mediation instead of court because of how the process works. 2 Some of the most frequent reasons given for preferring mediation include:
· Mediation enables the parties to deal with the issues they themselves feel important;
· Mediation allows the parties to present their views fully and gives them a sense of being hears;
· Mediation helps parties understand each other.

Significantly, most reasons cited relate to how the process works rather than the outcome it produces. Settlement, and even the quality of the outcome, are not what parties find most valuable about mediation.3

Community mediation has always been rooted in the values being described in "transformative" mediation. Community mediators are trained to assist parties to think about and make choices - about participation, procedures, goals, issues, options, evaluative criteria, whether an agreement should be reached and on what terms - all the decision points in the mediation process. Mediators encourage parties to understand each other's perspectives. These are the essential values of mediation wherever practiced and should be proudly articulated as such.

How does community mediation differ from other mediation practices? There are several significant characteristics of community mediation, which distinguish it from the practice of mediation in general. Community mediation is characterized by, and or committed to:
· The use of well-trained community volunteers as the primary provider of mediation services; volunteers are not required to have academic or professional credentials.
· Sponsorship by a public agency or a private nonprofit organization whose mediators, staff and governing /advisory board are representative of the diversity of the community served;
· Provision of services to clients regardless of their ability to pay
· Direct access to the public through self-referrals and/or court referrals; reduction of physical, linguistic, cultural, programmatic, and economic barriers to services.

Over 400 community mediation programs throughout the United States provide a wide range of mediation services, including interpersonal, family, divorce, consumer/merchant, victim/offender, parent/child, multiparty, organizational, and public policy mediation. They provide broad dissemination and appropriate training of conflict resolution skills for youth and adults for use in their families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities. They also promote collaborative community relationsh9ps to affect positive systemic change. Thus, community mediation is comprehensive in its goals and in its service to the community.

1 An "evaluative" mediator assesses the strengths and weaknesses of legal claims, develops and proposes a settlement, encourages the parties to accept a settlement, and predicts court outcomes and/or impact of not settling. See "Evaluative" Mediation Is An Oxymoron by Kimberlee K. Kovach and Lela P. Love, Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, 31, Vol 14, No.3, March, 1996.

2 See Robert A. Baruch Bush, "What Do We Need a Mediator For?": Mediation's "valu-added" for Negotiators, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution [Vol 12:1, 1996]

3 See also Mediation Quarterly: Special Issue - Transformative Approaches to Mediation [Jossey-Bass] Volume 13, Number 4, Summer 1996.

*This article first appeared in NIDR News, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, Washington D.C., Vol IV, No. 2, April/May, 1997