"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." ~Winston Churchill
CMC needs your support
to "jumpstart" Peer Mediation
in Knox County schools!
Dear Peer Mediation Supporter:
This August, 72 students and 24 teachers and administrators from 6 Knox County middle schools will gather at UT's Howard Baker Center for Public Policy to participate in peer mediation training.
Peer mediation is a conflict resolution method that has been used in schools around the world for the past 30 years. Students are trained as neutral third parties who facilitate confidential, respectful dialog and listening between other students who are in conflict. The goal is for disputants to craft and implement an agreement that allows them to move forward and prevents a dispute from escalating to fighting or other forms of hostility.
Research on peer mediation has found that well-implemented programs can be effective in making schools safer and more peaceful. For example, one study reported in the journal, Psychology in the Schools, found a significant reduction in suspensions in the year peer mediation was implemented at a middle school in Fayette County, Tennessee (Bell et al., 2000).
In 2008, former Nashville Circuit Court Judge Marietta Shipley obtained a grant from the Tennessee Supreme Court to implement peer mediation training in selected Tennessee school districts. Judge Shipley contracted with the CRU Institute in Seattle, WA (www.cruinstitute.org ) to do the training. Since 1987, CRU has trained students and teachers in mediation at hundreds of schools. The Community Mediation Center (CMC) here in Knoxville has worked with Judge Shipley and the Knox County Schools to arrange a week of training for students, teachers, and administrators at Carter, Cedar Bluff, Gresham, Halls, Powell, and Vine Middle Schools.
The grant covers the training team's time and travel and all materials, and the University has donated the use of classrooms in the Baker Center. CMC is seeking donations, either in-kind or monetary, to help provide snacks and lunches for the students and teachers through the week of the training. Your tax-deductible contribution to CMC for this event will help the participants obtain the maximum benefit from this unusual training opportunity. In the 2009-10 school year, well-trained students and teachers will be prepared to use mediation to resolve conflicts between students. If these mediation programs can be sustained, we expect a reduction in suspensions and Juvenile Court charges. The schools and the Knox County Juvenile Court support this new initiative. We hope that you will too.
Thank you for whatever you can contribute by the end of July--no donation is too small.We invite everyone to a reception to celebrate this week of peer mediation training on Monday, August 3 at 5 PM at the Baker Center.
(Questions? contact Whitney at 405-4486 or osheannaa@aol.com.)
Sincerely,
Jacqueline O. Kittrell, Esq.
CMC Executive Director
Whitney Ray Dawson, Chair
CMC Peer Mediation Advisory Committee
Click here to go to our donation page: you can donate securely online or mail in your donation.
community mediation center :: 912 South Gay Street :: Suite L300 :: Knoxville, TN 37902 :: P865.594.1879 :: F865.594.1890 :: info@2mediate.org