Facilitation and Mediation

Our staff are skilled in facilitation and mediation and provide these services. Typically, projects benefit multiple communities, expand the ways in which collaborative decision making is used, address community issues at a state or national level, and/or help build and test new models for collaboration.

All organizations and communities eventually find themselves face to face with key decisions that will significantly affect their future health, relationships, development, and vitality. Sometimes these decisions appear in the form of crises or conflicts that require the skillful melding of the needs and interests of diverse stakeholders. In other cases, it can be the need to develop a more efficient or equitable way of making decisions, or for some form of assistance in making those decisions. Real conversation, in moving beyond the speechmaking that often characterizes public business, can require external support. We can offer communities and organizations that support through a range of mediation and facilitation services.

Mediation has grown in popularity as a proven and effective way to resolve disputes ranging from the interpersonal to the international level. Relying on the use of a skillful "third party", the mediation process seeks to help participants understand the root causes of their conflicts and then work together in creating shared solutions. Our staff focuses on helping organizations and communities that are currently experiencing conflict, or wish to design a new, or improve their current, dispute resolution processes. In many instances, deeply rooted conflicts around race, class and other identity issues are most effectively addressed through the services we offer -- promoting dialogue, mutual understanding, and collaborative problem solving.

Our staff are experienced facilitators, assisting communities, and the organizations that work with them, to identify their existing assets, jointly define the issues, and then work as a highly functioning team to develop effective solutions. This can include facilitating a single meeting, a weekend long retreat, or a several month long strategic planning process. Staff work directly with the community or organization, interviewing key stakeholders and gathering background information to make sure that the meeting, retreat, or planning session reflects the needs of our clients.