The Dispute Resolution Center has over 130 trained volunteer mediators
who conducted over 500 mediations in 2007 and donated 1100 hours. They
represent a great many professional and community backgrounds including
attorneys, educators, social service and health professionals, community
leaders and more.
For every conflict, our staff carefully chooses a mediation team of one or
two mediators whose education and experience most closely match the issues
and the people involved in the conflict.
Our mediators are a reflection of the diverstiy
in our community in terms of race, gender, age, ethnic identitiy, sexual
orientation and cultural background and strive to embody and model the very
traits of peaceful resolution of conflict the DRC strives to fulfill.
Qualifications:
Mediators must meet the following basic requirements:
-
40 hour Michigan State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) approved
-
10 hours observation and practice
-
Co-mediation practice with experienced Mediators
Specialized Qualifications:
Mediators must meet the following specialized training requirements for
those cases involving:
- Divorce & Custody
- Domestic Violence screening protocols
- Special Education
- Parent/Teen
- Truancy
- Adult & Child Guardianship
Quality Control
- Co-mediation
- Most DRC cases are assigned 2 mediators who can work together to balance and monitor consistency and effectiveness of their work
- Debrief after each Mediation
- The DRC staff meets with the mediators after every case to discuss the effectivenss of the mediators and the outcomes
- Written evaluations by DRC clients
- All clients are provided evaluation forms to
be filled out immediately following each mediation and these are reviewed
by the Executive Director and staff
