Friday 11 April 2008

Workshops in Session 2A  (Sessions in GREY are already fully booked)

Peer Mediators Showcase Their Skills
Carol Hope (Scotland) 
Young peer mediators from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Scotland showcase their work. This work shop will use the “big pause button” to demonstrate how peer mediation in schools works. Delegates will be able to participate in this workshop as the basic skills of mediation are explored and practiced. This workshop will give mediators an opportunity to get back to basics and have some fun.

Influencing the Process of Mediation with Metaphors
Thomas H Smith (Czech Republic)
This session will seek to understand metaphoric framing in mediation and mediation as management of a complex, adaptive relationship system.  It will also explore the metaphoric frames that work well for simple and complex conflicts. Participants will understand the fundamental role of metaphor in thinking, the basic structure of metaphor in terms of Source and Target Domains.  Participants will learn how to detect metaphor in participants thinking and incongruent language and apply this to three key mediation functions. We will look in depth at the “Journey Metaphor” that is readily found in dialog and can be easily used by mediators, and the particular example of how the journey metaphor can be used in reframing.

 
Working Across Formal Structures:  Community Cohesion & Social Change
Peter O'Neill and Kirk Dawes (England)
The purpose of this workshop is to: advance mediation practise as an effective framework for community cohesion and social change, uniting business and commerce, public authorities and community, in developing ‘bottom up,’ rather than top down’ solutions.  It shows how mediation can be used across formal structures, as a working tool to bring about cohesion and social change.  It is completely interactive, builds knowledge, comprehension and, through a living scenario, demonstrates tools and techniques for application.

 
Mediation Skills in the Workplace: Northern Ireland & New Jersey
Gail E Richardson (New Jersey) and Theresa Toal (Northern Ireland)
The presenters will give an insight into how cultural exchanges, using mediation skills as the central focus, can have a very real and meaningful impact on the workplace.  The presenters will compare and contrast the use of mediation skills in the Civil Service settings in which they practice in New Jersey and Belfast.  The speakers will actively engage the participants in order to create a dynamic for exchange of ideas and opportunities to make links with other practitioners that could lead to future collaboration. 

 
Transformative Mediation in the Northern Ireland Conflict
Anne Monaghan, (Northern Ireland)
The workshop will reflect on the role of transformative mediation in the Northern Ireland context and will compare and contrast the transformative approach with case studies of problem-solving mediation used in parading disputes from 2006 and in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Participants will critically evaluate transformative mediation’s philosophy and practice against current literature and comparative practice in relation to problem-solving practice in Northern Ireland.  Is a model which combines transformative mediation as a philosophy with practical aspects of the problem-solving approach more realistic within the context of a society emerging from conflict?

 
The Academic Study of Mediation
Panel to be confirmed
In some parts of Europe, mediation is taught as a craft, supplementing skills training which revolves around role-play work followed by shadowing and supervision. In other countries, mediation is taught as an academic subject involving taught classes and essay writing. 
 
A number of universities now offer a Masters Degree Course in the field. What can we learn from the academic study of conflict management and dispute resolution? Is there sufficient experience of practice and rigorous analysis of research to know what best practice looks like? Do university professors teaching this subject need to be experienced and practicing mediators? Do you have to have a Masters Degree to become an advanced mediator?
 
A series of short interviews with distinguished figures in the field will be followed by a facilitated conversation with the audience. Polling questions before and after the session will gauge the feelings of participants.  

Workshops in Session 2B

 
Ethics, Standards, and Professionalism
Jonathan Dingle (England), Maura Wall-Murphy (Ireland), Lorraine Schaffer (England).
Panel facilitated by Ewan Malcolm (Scotland)

The European Parliament is about to enact its long awaited Directive on Mediation. Codes of ethical conduct and standards for practice are key foundation stones for what some people call an emerging profession. This will be a lively panel session which should stimulate audience participation so that we learn from the diverse experience of various parts of the Europe. Discussion topics will include:
 
·         Most practicing mediators sign up to a code of conduct. Many do not question the beliefs, values, 
       assumptions or principles underling their code until such time as they are faced with an ethical
       dilemma. What tools and resources are available to mediators when considering their own
       options?

·         The UK has a range of quality assurance schemes, including the www.scottishmediationregister.org.uk and the Civil Mediation Council’s accreditation of commercial mediation services.  How might they and others link while reflecting the diverse needs of the different cultures across Europe?

·         What are the hallmarks of “professionalism” and do they inhibit community empowerment by putting specialist skills in the hands of a few skilled people?

 
Ways of Overcoming Violence – Experience with the Civil Peace Service
Matthias Ries, (Germany)
This workshop will be an interactive overview of Civil Peace Service, its current activities and instruments. The goal of the Civil Peace Service (CPS) is to reduce or prevent violence, foster understanding and contribute towards sustainable and just peace in cooperation with local partners in conflict regions.  The idea of the CPS was born in response to the wars in the former Yugoslavia. The key issue was how violence can be reduced and society‘s peace capacities strengthened without recourse to military intervention.  The CPS was integrated into the framework of development cooperation in 1999 and, since then, has evolved into a successful instrument for civil society-based peace-building and peacekeeping. 

 
Family Mediation Instead of Court
Anne Brant and Kara Doran (Northern Ireland)
The workshop will present a tried and tested model of resolving conflict in the area of contact and residence disputes between parents.  It will demonstrate that the model of mediation offered is an effective alternative to pursuing resolution of such disputes rather than pursuing resolution through the adversarial process of court proceedings.  The model has been recently researched (August 2007) and the findings of this research will be presented and these will demonstrate that this approach was found to be effective in achieving long lasting agreements for a large majority of clients.  It was also found to be extremely time efficient compared to the court process and thus has cost saving implications.

 
Referral to Mediation: Attracting Parties to Mediation
Mariette Baptist-Fruin and Peter Beaton (Netherlands)
As a trainer and adviser for the 30 Dutch Legal Aid Centres, Mariette Baptist will describe the specifics of the Referral to Mediation project as it is carried out by the Legal Aid Centre and which is (financially) supported by the Ministry of Justice. The mediative skills needed and acquired by staff of the centres will be considered and also the responses they get from parties they approach for mediation. We will then elaborate on the potential to attract citizens and different sectors in society to use (pre-)mediation and mediative skills to build better relationships. Peter Beaton will present his ideas on this topic building on his experience in Scotland and at the European Commission.

 
Strategies for a 'Mediation Society': The Scandinavian Experience
Dag Hareide (Norway)
How to make mediation main stream? How to organize mediation to make a difference in the society at large? What about methods, finances, training?  The Scandinavian countries have in the last 20 years had some remarkable successes in introducing mediation. In 2002 Nordic Forum for Mediation and Conflict Management decided to find out why something did (not) succeed. It resulted in a four year research and reflection project in the five Scandinavian/Nordic countries; Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. Around 300 of the key mediators participated through several conferences, writers’ seminars and workshops. The project was sponsored by all the Nordic governments and private funds. Dag Hareide was the coordinator and wrote the book: “Conflict Mediation – A Nordic Perspective”.

 
Community Workshops: Reducing Negative Perceptions of Young People
Arlene Williams and Cat Woodall (England)
This session will use a full range of techniques to achieve its objectives. It will include information on how multi-party mediations and intergenerational workshops are used between young people and adults in communities to resolve issues of anti social behaviour, and reduce the number of complaints made to police.  Intergenerational Days seek to reduce the negative perception of young people and build positive relationships within communities. Young people are asked to share any talents with the older people like art work and music.