MV Mediation is pleased to announce a $2,500 grant from the Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation to support the Youth Mediation Program and Peace Curriculum. The Peace Curriculum, developed by Executive Director Sara Barnes, is a 10-week conflict resolution and positive communication program designed to teach conflict resolution to the students of Martha’s Vineyard. Using integrative and hands-on activities, students learn to apply skills to resolve conflict in their day-to-day lives.
About 40 years ago, right around the time she began writing her seminal article The Logic Behind the Magic of Mediation, Albie Davis came to Martha’s Vineyard to help provide training for the court-sponsored program, which was then just one year old. In that journal article Davis wrote: “I’ve never mediated a case where I didn’t see a little piece of myself in each of the parties, the best and the worst of their qualities. I knew I could be in their shoes . . .”
We’ve all got families: birth, chosen, adoptive, step, nuclear, extended. Whatever type of family is yours, along with the joys and shared milestones, there’s sure to be a common factor: conflict. Although each family constellation is unique and special and may be united by love, respect, and shared values, all families do have some unresolved conflicts. In my experience, there are common family conflict themes. Money, communication, and time are three familiar topics.
MV Mediation is a founding sponsor of the Building Bridges Coalition. In partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, the Martha’s Vineyard Agriculture Society, Communication Ambassadors Partnership, Islandwide Youth Collaborative, and numerous individuals and organizations, the Festa Junina event is the first initiative for the Building Bridges Coalition.
MV Mediation is pleased to announce a $2,500 grant from the Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation to support the Youth Mediation Program and Peace Curriculum. The Peace Curriculum, developed by Executive Director Sara Barnes, is a 10-week conflict resolution and positive communication program designed to teach conflict resolution to the students of Martha’s Vineyard. Using integrative and hands-on activities, students learn to apply skills to resolve conflict in their day-to-day lives.
How and when and where did you learn about how to handle conflicts? Most of us have learned our personal conflict management approaches from the modeling of others. Throughout your life you were watching, observing, considering, and trying out new methods and developing your own style as a conflict resolver.
It’s rough out there. Wars, atrocities, mass shootings, global warming, toxic polarization, free-floating anger and anxiety. We are often asked at MV Mediation about what we can do about world problems. Global conflicts and intractable societal problems weigh heavily on conflict resolvers’ minds just as they do for everyone. I thought that I’d offer approaches that have helped me, thinking they might help others during difficult times.
In recognition of Veteran’s Day:
5 veterans’ skills to apply to conflict resolution
In recognition of National Kindness Day:
How to show kindness in professional settings
Making tough decisions with compassion
Here are some reflective questions that might facilitate kindness when in conflict
Kind conflict resolution in the classroom
Preparing for family and holiday conflicts:
Dealing with difficult relationships
Conflict-free visits: Is this realistic?
Managing unresolved conflict
Other:
Don’t take it personally
Learning mutuality
Using a neutral to talk to your team about difficult news and current events
Conflict narratives and emotions
Here’s a link to one of our favorite websites on peace and conflict; lots of resources here
Four ways to create quality connections at work
The impact of pressure to accommodate others on conflict resolution
How curiosity can transform your relationships
Where one sits is important
November 20, 12–1pm: Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution: “Where Do We Fit In? Rethinking the Role of EU Peacebuilding Missions”
November 28: Giving Tuesday––Please help MV Mediation with a donation.
November 30/December 1: Massachusetts Council for Family Mediation (see info below)
December 7, 8:30–10am: Roundtable Breakfast: Using mediation to resolve conflicts over animals, register here. roundtable on Zoom.
People who take our courses say that their professional and personal lives improve. We offer a variety of themes designed to help you understand how conflict can be better managed in your personal life, workplace, and community. Registration is open for our Fall lineup of courses. Click here for a complete at-a-glance schedule.
We acknowledge that we are standing on the land of the Wôpanâak (Wampanoag) people and nation, who settled this land at least 12,000 years ago and still celebrate it as home today. Although commonly referred to as Martha’s Vineyard, this island has a much older name, a Wôpanâak name: Noëpe. Through this acknowledgement, we wish to celebrate Wôpanâak culture, creativity, and perspective. We hope to honor Wôpanâak perseverance in the face of colonialism, invisibility, and cultural genocide. And we commit to restorative relationships and practices with the Wôpanâak people of Noëpe. After all, it is important to remember that no matter where you go in what is now the United States, you are always on indigenous land.
Do you know about the CAP organization? Communication Ambassador Partnership of Martha’s Vineyard is a local nonprofit organization whose vision is language access for all on Martha’s Vineyard and beyond. CAP provides interpreting and translation services along with other services that promote and support the assets of multilingualism and multiculturalism.
