How to become a mediator
The mediator must possess good communications skills, ability to respect diversity and differences and an ability to maintain confidentiality and impartiality. All mediators in the State of Oregon begin by taking a basic 30-hour class in mediation. The class covers active listening, empathy and validation techniques, describes sensitivity of cross-cultural issues, teaches neutrality, helps to identify and reframe issues, establishing trust, teaches techniques to achieve agreement, how to write agreements, the process of case development and the ethical standards expected from a mediator in Oregon. There is an apprenticeship involving observing and co-mediating two cases with an experienced mediator .
The basic mediation class provides both the concepts and hands on experience through lecture, elicitive response and role-playing scenarios. The volunteer mediators are encouraged to further their education and if they want they can take further training in small claims mediation, FED, Divorce, Family, Victim/Offender and public policy.
What can a volunteer expect to do
We like our volunteers to be able to commit to a regular schedule of a few hours a week, usually two. Of course we appreciate more if they have the time. The day to day activities of our volunteers run from office work such as filing and record keeping, to case development where our volunteers make phone contact with the people who requested our services to further understand the situation and to help the parties find ways to resolve the issues. If the phone conversations fail to resolve the conflict then our volunteers then try and schedule a time for both parties to come in for table mediation. This involves finding a place to meet, a time that both the parties and mediators meet, and finding two other mediators. When possible we do co-mediation and use different mediators than the one that did the case development to give a fresh perspective to the mediation process. There is always a debriefing after the mediation process to help the volunteers learn from the experience.
There are always outreach programs that our volunteers can become involved with. These can range from handing out information at a booth at a fair to interviews to creating brochures.
As with all volunteer organizations there is always a lot to do. But we have fun working together in a positive and learning enriched environment.
| 