Setting Up A Peer Mediation Program: This training program trains schools to set up a peer mediation program where students facilitate the resolution of conflict between other students within their school. This is a process that promotes positive change in the way students understand and resolve conflict at school and within their lives.
Overcoming failures in communications and understanding the depth of adolescent passions are keys to reducing the occurrence of conflict and violence in schools. Making students equal partners in identifying and solving the roots of conflict is a main element in a win-win resolution.
Students’ perceptions of what is a problem and source of pressure often differ from adults. Many of the problems that arise among students are “typical kid hassles�?, peer pressure, he said-she said and bullying. Issues around dating or friendships that injure a student’s self-esteem or social standing will lead to conflict if not resolved earlier enough. Any time you can understand how the student is feeling and offer a healthy outlet such as mediation, it will help the student, their peers and the school as a whole. School violence is reduced when students participate resolving their conflict situations.
Mediation is a voluntary program, the peer mediators are not judges and do not come up with solutions or make decisions. Mediators guide their peers who are in a dispute, towards a win-win resolution for all involved.
PEER MEDIATION TRAINING:
This intensive three-day program provides students and staff with the hands-on opportunity to engage in mediations and acquire the skills used to assist students in conflict reach a positive agreement. Through extensive simulations in which students will have the opportunity to be both the mediator and a party in a dispute, students will learn how third-party intervention can resolve conflict in a wide variety of conflicts. A significant focus of the program will be the use of mediation role play exercises in which students and staff will be observed and coached by a professional mediator.
Prior to the mediation training, we will help the administration to:
Recruit a core group of adults within the school to oversee, develop and compose; policy, procedures, forms and process
Develop a selection process for students.
Help develop introduction letter for the mediation program, to all staff, students and parents.
This training includes:
- Community building
- Communication skills
- Conflict resolution tools
- Mediation procedure, process and guidelines
- Roleplays
Non-violent communication (“NVC�?) and Alternatives to Violence (“AVP�?):
The level of violence among people is in part a response to the violence embedded in neighborhoods, social networks, culture, morals, beliefs and values. Some people, groups and cultures more than others are entrapped by this violence. This training provides the stimulus and motivation to encourage people to search within themselves to transform negative emotional energy like hostility and destructiveness into healthier and more constructive energy patterns and emotions.