Social Justice Mediation Institute

Social Justice Mediation Training: 

Participants will explore the relationship between inequality, lack of inclusion and how conflicts develop and are resolved in mediation through lectures, interactive activities, analyses of (actual) videotaped mediation sessions, skill improvement, and roleplays. 

Participants will receive a mediation certificate of successful completion of the training. 

Why a social justice approach to mediation?

The Social Justice Mediation training was developed in response to a growing body of scholarship revealing that commonly used mediation models and practices do not serve all disputing parties despite best intentions. Although there has been demonstrated success of mediation for many, research has also shown that it routinely does not produce fair and equal treatment for all both structurally within the institution and interpersonally between individual disputants. Social Justice Mediation Training undertakes an examination of how and why this occurs in mediation and introduces principles and new strategies that work to counter the potential for unfair and unequal process. Participants are trained to mediate using a social justice lens that is focused on their own intervention strategies while helping every disputing party reach their own mutually agreeable solutions. The training is open to both previously trained mediators and those without any mediation background.

More than 5000 people have been trained in this approach and it has been utilized by over 100 campuses and organizations across the United States. It has been praised for preparing mediators to effectively respond to the realities of conflicts in diverse organizations and communities.