|
|
Message From Our President/CEO
I want to take a moment to celebrate the people who are at the very heart of our work as a Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC): our volunteers.
The New York State CDRC network promotes the training and certification of volunteer mediators in order to empower community members to provide conflict resolution in their communities.
Our volunteers share a common interest in working with people, though they come from a variety of backgrounds. They are human service providers, office staff, college students, hairdressers, sales/business people, artists, attorneys, educators, social workers, and retired judges. With an average of 10 years of experience, our volunteers demonstrate high levels of commitment, loyalty, and integrity in their practice.
In order to become a certified mediator with the Center, volunteers complete a 35-hour Basic Mediation Training followed by an apprenticeship that involves observing experienced mediators, co-mediating, and being observed and finally approved as meeting the standards required to receive certification. Once certified, volunteers must mediate at least 3 cases, and complete at least 6 hours of in-service training, annually. In addition, mediators are expected to debrief with staff after each mediation in order to reflect on their practice and engage in continual learning.
I am proud of the excellence that our volunteers represent, both for us as an agency, and for the communities in which they live. To our 50+ volunteers serving across our 8 counties: THANK YOU for making our world a more peaceful place!
Be sure to read the Interview with Ingrid Welch, Program Manager and Volunteer Coordinator (below) to learn more about our volunteer program.
Shira May, Ph.D.
President/CEO
P.S. - Our 2021-2022 Annual Report is now available to view on our website. Learn more about how we are engaging with our communities: https://www.cdsadr.org/?q=annual-report-2021-2022
|
|
|
|
Our New Website Has Launched!
We are excited to officially unveil our new website! Designed to be contemporary in look and feel, easy to navigate, and rich in content, the new site is an exciting milestone as we approach our 50th anniversary, and look for new and fresh ways to serve our communities over the next 50 years!
Check out the site here: www.cdsadr.org
|
|
|
Custody and Visitation Mediation Training
July 11-12, 9:00am - 5:30pm
First Federal Building, Rochester, NY
Training provided by Donna Durbin,
New York State Unified Court System Certified Trainer
Cost for non-CDS mediators is $320 per person.
Prerequisite: Basic Mediation Training from a Transformative approach.
For more information, contact Donna Durbin: ddurbin@cdsadr.org
|
|
|
The Center for Dispute Settlement is a proud sponsor of the upcoming Women of Color Summit, hosted by Eleversity. Our sponsorship includes 5 complimentary registrations. If you are interested in attending the summit, please RSVP to smay@cdsadr.org. For more information, visit: eleversity.org/summit/
Funding for this sponsorship was made possible by generous donations to our Racial Equity Leadership Committee (RELC). This budget allows us to pay for speakers, workshops, and other professional development activities aimed at changing the culture of our agency and helping us reach our goal of becoming a truly multicultural, antiracist organization.
Please consider supporting RELC's work! Click below to donate:
|
|
|
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Recognized in Rochester
Rochester's City Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City of Rochester on the second Monday of every October.
Ronalyn (Ronnie) Pollack, Director of Training and Community Engagement at the Center for Dispute Settlement, is Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Planning Committee, which has advocated and organized for several years for the resolution.
Ronnie is quoted in a recent news article, saying, “This monumental vote is one that is long overdue. It gives visibility where invisibility has existed for far too long for our people. This vote brings an opportunity for healing not only between people but also to the land. Lastly, the vote also brings honor and recognition to our ancestors who suffered many atrocities and helps pave the way for our future generations."
Please join us in celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, October 10th, 2022. The Center's offices will be officially closed.
References:
https://13wham.com/news/local/indigenous-people-day-officially-recognized-in-rochester
https://sojo.net/articles/how-interfaith-model-helped-local-coalition-end-columbus-day
|
|
|
|
Our Continuing Work in the "Interrupt Racism" Program Through the Urban League of Rochester
Our Interrupt Racism cohort recently focused on Intersectionality. At core, intersectionality identifies the unique experience of an individual created by the combination of their identities. Examining our place along the spectrum of power and privilege associated with each identity category is an opportunity to understand our own position. It is also an opportunity to recognize the layers of class and category that dictate experience, including disadvantage
and oppression.
The Center For Dispute Settlement believes in approaches to service which emphasize self-determination. To support self-determination for those with identities unlike our own is to recognize and accept that we do not fully understand their experience. Instead we believe in trusting the knowledge and experience of our clients and emphasizing their ability to make the
best choices for their lives. Practicing our transformative and restorative skills with fidelity requires a commitment to participant self-determination and checking our instinct to “help.”
Included below is a talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw, the legal scholar who first advocated this perspective, discussing its urgency and origin. Also included is a link to a graphic depiction of the concept. We invite you to review the attached and ask questions as they arise. Please feel free to contact Matt (mcole@cdsadr.org) or Shira (smay@cdsadr.org).
The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o
Power Wheel: https://ccrweb.ca/en/anti-oppression
|
|
|
Pictured left to right: Justin Morris (Founder/CEO, Untrapped Ministries), Donna Durbin (Director, Monroe County), Amy DiFranco (7th Judicial District ADR Coordinator), Shira May (President/CEO), Judge Debra Martin (Monroe County Supreme Court), Parris Bryant II (Chair, DEIB Committee), Joe Brown (Board Chair), David Tang (Chair, Governance & Strategy Committee)
|
|
Recap of our Annual Meeting
June 3, 2022
Our Annual Meeting was our first hybrid event of its kind, with in-person participants joining us in the First Federal Building 19th floor training room and virtual participants joining us from across our region via Zoom.
Our featured speaker, Judge Debra Martin, is a Monroe County Supreme Court judge and the coordinating judge for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the 7th Judicial District. Judge Martin spoke about the partnership opportunities between the courts and the Center, including the potential to work together on cases resulting from the Child Victims Act, which extended the statute of limitations for adult survivors of child sexual abuse to bring civil lawsuits against their abusers.
The Annual Meeting also represented the kick-off of our Spring Appeal, which ended June 30th. Interested donors can still contribute to our Annual Appeal. Learn more information about how your contributions help create more peaceful communities: https://www.cdsadr.org/?q=donate
|
|
|
|
An Interview With
Program Manager and
Volunteer Coordinator,
Ingrid Welch
In 2002, Ingrid Welch was working at the YMCA in a wrap-around program for kindergarteners, when she decided to apply for a staff position at the Center for Dispute Settlement. Her work at the Center started as a part-time Case Manager in the Ontario County Community Mediation program. Eventually, her position expanded to full-time, and she began managing all the different mediation case types. Today, Ingrid is a Program Manager in the Ontario County office, as well as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Center. In this role, Ingrid maintains data on all the volunteers across the agency, and she also communicates with volunteers about their apprenticeship and certification maintenance requirements.
“I love my volunteers!” is how Ingrid responds when asked to describe her role as Volunteer Coordinator. ”I get to know them, their personalities and so on... [and I know] who will be perfect for [each particular case]."
Ingrid believes that building relationships with volunteers is an essential component of her role. "They come in, and we talk about how things are going. We talk about their kids, their vacation,” she says, adding, "I care about them, and they care about us. I think that’s really important because [the relationship is what makes them] want to keep coming back and volunteering."
One of Ingrid's volunteers has a farm stand and brings in fresh mushrooms for the staff. Another brings fabric, because she knows Ingrid is a quilter. Ingrid notes, “They don’t get paid to do this, so it's important that they know they are valued and have a relationship with us."
Ingrid described the variety of events that staff have organized for Mediator Appreciation: “We’ve done a steamboat ride on Seneca Lake, a Culinary Center chocolate and wine tasting, a tour of Granger Homestead. We also hold a swearing in event [for mediator certification]."
Ingrid also talked about the importance of mediators maintaining their professional requirements: “Because of our requirements and standards, I think it’s important that the volunteers know where they stand and what they need to complete those 6 hours [of required in-service each year]." Ingrid explains, "You gotta keep your skills up. This is a kind of skill you don’t just learn once and you’re good to go. There’s always more to learn, more things you can put in your toolbox, even with how many years you’ve done it.”
One of the greatest rewards for Ingrid is when she sees newly trained apprentice mediators experience a shift in mindset, away from a "fix it" mentality, to a transformative approach based on client self-determination: “It is really kind of freeing for them [to realize] that they don’t have to make those decisions [for the clients]. They see those 'aha' moments when the parties are not hearing each other, and the mediator is reflecting or summarizing, and all of a sudden there’s a shift and the parties are talking to each other and coming up with a plan, or you hear ‘I never knew that’ – all of a sudden they’re listening [to each other]. As a mediator you’re just like 'Oh my god!' They get so excited when they see that. They go, 'Yeah this works! We have some mediators that started with a facilitative process, but now they use a transformative process, and they’re like ‘There is no other process.’ It’s fun debriefing when they see that shift in the mediation. That really keeps them going.”
Ingrid can be reached at iwelch@cdsadr.org
|
|
|
