Conflict is a normal part of life. Living in conflict, or letting conflict escalate to the point of hurting yourself, others, or your community, should not be normal.
Mediation is a voluntary, structured communication process for conflict resolution between two people. Facilitated by a trained neutral mediator, the process is designed to empower people to solve their problems peacefully, reach out for help when needed, and build the communication skills necessary to address conflict as it arises. The goal of mediation is to identify the issues underlying the conflict and establish a plan to avoid future problems.
School-Based Mediation and Peer Mediation programs encourage students to make self-referrals and seek resolution before a conflict escalates to an incident requiring disciplinary action. Schools with mediation programs in place find that the number of self-referrals increases over time as students hear about the positive impact of successful mediations. In workplace settings, the mediation process empowers employees to resolve conflict peacefully by recognizing and addressing an issue before it becomes a concern for HR.
Peaceful Schools is equipped to provide research-based, interactive training for adults in School-Based and Workplace Mediation and students in 4th grade and up in Peer Mediation. The training process is 24 hours in total and can include a mix of virtual, in-person, and self-directed work. Participants dive into the foundations of conflict and communication and build a strong understanding of the Mediation process through activity and behavioral rehearsal. Participants receive the necessary materials and training to begin mediating and collecting valuable data right away.
Contact us to discuss the details.
Select school staff will be trained and certified as mediators to run a successful mediator program and conduct mediations in your school. This comprehensive training is designed to include theoretical knowledge of conflict, communication and negotiation strategies, as well as significant time spent in structured role-play and activities to allow for behavioral rehearsal and immediate feedback. Documentation forms and processes are provided to track data from mediators to inform school-based policies and decisions.
Our team comes to your school and trains students grades 4-12 to become peer mediators at their school. Our training engages students in activities, role play and skill rehearsal to prepare them to successfully mediate disputes between other students. Documentation forms and processes are provided to mediation advisors to track mediation data and inform school-based policies and decisions.
Once a school professional has been trained and led a mediation program in their school, our Train-the-Trainer program can teach staff to sustain the mediation programming, recruit, train, and manage student peer mediators in their own school or district.
Our team will work to train adults at all levels of an organization to be neutral peer mediators for co-workers in conflict. This promotes a corporate culture that is peaceful and cooperative.
When you need experienced mediators now, we’ve got your back. Experienced Peaceful Schools staff is available to facilitate mediations and coordinate a mediation program for any school, district, organization or company.
“I enjoyed every aspect [of this training]. The best training I have attended this year! (And I have been to a lot.)” – Teacher, Greater Amsterdam School District
In 2016 we began our partnership with the Greater Amsterdam School District in Amsterdam, NY, to implement a District-wide Peer Mediation Program. The goal was to provide skills and resources to help students resolve conflicts peacefully in order to reduce the incidents of fighting and low-level conflict that were negatively impacting academic growth.
Peaceful Schools staff trained Peer Mediation teams of students in all 6 school buildings, including 4 Elementary, 1 Middle, and 1 High School. We also trained adult advisors and administrators in each of those buildings on how and why to successfully implement a Peer Mediation Program. Our team has provided mediation refresher sessions to each group of students and advisors who were trained, and continue to provide remote and on-site Technical Support for advisors. In our third year of partnership, we provided Train-the-Trainer training for adult advisors in those buildings to help them create sustainability for successive years of peer mediators.
“I loved the idea that students are trained to remain neutral, identify themes in conflict, and learn how to assist with resolving conflict in a peaceful manner.” – School Advisor, Greater Amsterdam School District
