Community Issues

If you’re a neighbor, landlord, tenant, business owner, or part of a community group Mediation Matters can help can help you and your peers constructively resolve conflict in your community.

 

Neighborhood Mediation

Mediation is a neutral process where all parties voluntarily elect to participate. It can be utilized to resolve a wide array of conflicts that arise in communities. Below are a few examples of disputes where mediation can help:

• Formal small claims disputes including disputes between tenants & landlords, disputes over private sales between parties, and disputes over contracting services.
• Informal disputes between roommates, friends, neighbors, etc.
• Conflicts between business owners, vendors, clients, patrons, employees, residents of the surrounding neighborhood, etc.
• For more information on Mediation for businesses, visit the Workplace, Training, and Professional Services.

 

Community Conversations

Sometimes you need a venue that’s non-adversarial and a neutral party to host a conversation involving multiple stakeholders. Mediation Matters can provide both the venue and facilitator to help resolve these types of community-wide disputes.

Examples of scenarios may include, but are not limited to: zoning disputes, environmental regulation policy decision making, neighborhood ordinances, etc.

 

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a cooperative and voluntary process that involves everyone affected by a crime or incident: person(s) responsible, person(s) harmed, family members, and the greater community. This process focuses on repairing the harms caused and the needs of everyone involved. Restorative justice processes can come in many forms to fit the needs of the situation, such as mediation, conferencing, or talking circles.

Mediation Matters has often partnered with local schools to facilitate restorative justice circles to resolve conflicts amongst students, their families, and staff. If you would like to learn more about our school programming, visit the Youth & Educational Programming page. If you would like to learn more about restorative justice, check out Restorative Justice Online.

 

Re-Entry Mediation 

For those preparing for and in the process of reintegrating back into society after being incarcerated, the complexities of navigating family and personal life can be daunting. Mediation Matters has staff and mediators trained to empower currently & formerly incarcerated individuals, their families, and friends to navigate these complexities as they plan for the future reintegrate back into their communities.

*** If you are a representative of an organization that works with the veteran community or serves those re-entering society after incarceration, please visit the Community Collaborations page about developing partnerships and referring cases.