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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: MAKING PEACE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
- Message-ID: <1992Aug29.082307.5970@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 08:23:07 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 120
-
- The ACTivist July/August 92
-
- The ACTivist is published monthly (one issue during July and August)
- by the ACT for Disarmament Coalition, 736 Bathurst St., Toronto,
- Ontario, Canada, M5S 2R4, phone 416-531-6154, fax 416-531-5850,
- e-mail web:act.
-
- Reprint freely, but please credit us (and send us a copy!)
-
- /** gen.newsletter: 121.16 **/
- ** Written 11:29 pm Aug 11, 1992 by web:act in cdp:gen.newsletter **
- MAKING PEACE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
-
- By Mary Hutchinson
- The ACTivist
-
- In the attempt to build a peaceful, non-violent society, much of
- the work must be done at the neighbourhood level. Only if we can
- build independent, community-based methods of conflict resolution
- between individuals, can we hope to create a larger society that
- operates by these same principles.
-
- In a city such as Toronto, where people come from many different
- cultural backgrounds and tend not to live all their lives in the same
- neighbourhood, neighbours often ignore or barely tolerate each
- other. When somethings goes wrong -- for example, a new next-door
- neighbour practices the tuba for eight hours a day or puts up a
- fence annexing a few feet of someone else's property -- there is too
- much mistrust and not enough communication for them to fix the
- problem themselves. What is to be done then? If one takes the other
- to court, it will probably be expensive, certainly inconvenient, and
- they will probably dislike each other forever afterwards.
-
- Besides, the purpose of the court system is not so much to find the
- best solution for both parties as it is to find a winner and a loser.
- And the court system almost invariably favours those who have
- money for lawyers, and who belong to the same culture, race,
- class and sex as the judge and the people who invented the system.
-
- What is needed is a service to help people understand and feel
- more comfortable with each other, so they can work together to
- solve their own problems.
-
- St. Stephen's Community House offers such services free of charge
- to residents of Toronto. They rely on volunteer mediators whose
- backgrounds are matched as closely as possible with those of the
- disputants. The 67 volunteers speak 16 languages and represent
- 24 different cultural backgrounds.
-
- This panel of sympathetic volunteers, different but cooperating
- with each other, sets a good example for the disputants. Last year,
- 62% of St. Stephen's cases were between people from different
- racial or cultural backgrounds, and people from 33 different ethnic
- groups were served. This variety of viewpoints is probably the
- biggest advantage of such mediation services in enabling the
- disputants to communicate their concerns.
-
- The first step in the mediation process involves visits to the
- homes of both disputants by volunteers from the community
- who are from similar backgrounds. All disputants have a chance
- to tell their stories in the privacy of their homes, at a time
- convenient for them. Of course, people feel much more at ease in
- familiar surroundings, and this gives them the feeling that the
- community cares. At this time, if they agree to try the mediation
- services, the process is explained to them so they will know what
- to expect.
-
- The second step is a hearing in a neutral place in which each
- person has an opportunity to tell his or her side of the story to a
- panel of three volunteers. Then the disputing neighbours begin
- to speak directly to each other. The role of the panel is not to
- pass judgement but to help them identify the key issues and
- communicate them to each other. The panel aids them in
- brainstorming to come up with a solution, which must be agreed
- to by both parties. Mitra Ghalamain of St. Stephen's explains the
- advantages of this kind of conflict resolution:
-
- "One advantage is that it is a win/win situation, rather than
- using the adversarial system where one or both loses. There are
- compromises but there are also situations where both get what
- they want. That is the ultimate goal of conflict resolution, but in
- reality people do realize that they must give something up."
-
- When people come to their own solution they feel empowered,
- and if they do have to give something up they realize that it was
- their own decision and have an understanding of why it was
- necessary. They have also learned valuable communication skills
- which they might use in conflict situations in the future.
-
- Most disputes are resolved in one or two sessions, very quickly
- compared to cases taken to court. Out of the cases in which both
- parties agree to follow the mediation process, 85 to 90% come to
- a successful agreement which is written out and signed by all.
- Usually a follow-up is done to make sure the agreement is
- working out.
-
- More than half the conflicts mediated by St. Stephen's are
- neighbourhood disputes; the rest are landlord-tenant,
- intra-organizational and interpersonal. Interpersonal disputes
- involve friends, co-workers and siblings -- when the problem is
- very personal, as in most cases of couples or children and parents,
- it will be referred to a family therapist.
-
- To raise funds for the free services, the Conflict Resolution
- Service at St. Stephen's offers seminars to government and
- non-profit organizations on mediation and other conflict
- management skills. These workshops range from 3 days to
- an hour and half long, and are designed to be relevant to the
- group being addressed.
-
- This sort of community-based service is an example to other
- public programs. It represents the community rather than the
- ruling class, and reduces the need for policing and control-based
- programs. We need to cut down on unnecessary stress and
- intimidation and work for solutions which empower people to
- care about their neighbours and nieghbourhoods.
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:gen.newsletter **
-
-