Mediation Plus launch new service for workplace disputes

After over ten years helping residents of Eastbourne and Wealden resolve neighbour and family disputes, Hailsham based community mediation charity Mediation Plus is launching a new service to help resolve disputes in the workplace.

Supported by funding from the Big Lottery Awards4All programme, a group of the services mediators have just successfully completed their specialist training designed to enable them to help businesses and organisations of all kinds and sizes across the area. Mediation avoids the need for employers to go through lengthy and expensive grievance procedures and concentrates on building practical working relationships that can help people and the organisation going forward.

Service and Development Manager Clive Gross said "We spend a huge percentage of our lives in one kind of working environment or another. Most people would like work related conflicts resolved but sometimes they do not know how to, or they are unable to work through how to make the changes happen. Workplace mediation can resolve conflict quickly and in a safe environment. It is a completely confidential process which encourages people to talk openly and empowers those involved to own issues affecting them and avoids decisions being imposed."

Workplace mediation is now being widely used by businesses and organisations worldwide and can be equally effective in helping charitable and public sector organisations resolve disputes as well as commercial businesses. For the employer, workplace mediation can help to quickly restore healthy and positive working relationships, focus people on the future not the past and can take place at any time to try and resolve a workplace relationship issue.

Clive Gross added "This new service is a key part of our long-term aim of making mediation accessible to resolve all kinds of conflicts - not just the neighbour and intergenerational dispute services we are well known for. As a locally based charity, we are able to offer an affordable service to smaller local organisations as well as those larger employers who may already be aware of the benefits of mediation. By using Mediation Plus, they would also be helping us to sustain our community mediation service for those local residents who need it."

As part of the launch of their new service, Mediation Plus has secured a limited amount of funding to offer local charities or community groups in Eastbourne or Wealden a free dispute and conflict resolution service to help them deal with issues between staff, volunteers or trustees that may be affecting their ability to operate or deliver their services to beneficiaries. To qualify for the funded service, you must be a registered charity or constituted community group with an annual turnover of under £100,000 and referrals are subject to continued availability of funds.

If you are interested in finding out more about the new service, please visit the Mediation Plus website, phone us on 01323 442781 or send an email.

Mediation Plus helps launch Ugandan school mediation project

Mediation Plus – the community mediation service for Eastbourne and Wealden – are celebrating the successful launch of a school mediation project in Uganda following the training of the projects’ Executive Director last autumn.

Early last year Mediation Plus were approached by Geoff and Geraldine Booker, founders of the Quicken Trust - a small Hailsham based educational charity which began its work on the Kabbudu Development Project, Uganda in 2000 after a chance visit. They had secured funding from the 'Commonwealth Professional Fellowship' to support Enoch Kagoda, Executive Director of the project to come to the UK and attend training and also to promote their work.

Geraldine said “‘When we first visited, the villagers of Kabubbu had no clean water supply, no electricity and no access to education or health care. They lived in poverty and destitution, surviving on subsistence farming and casual work breaking stones in a quarry. This job was done by women. They were paid £2.50 a week. Many children had been left orphaned by AIDS or malaria. The villagers saw themselves as ‘The Forgotten People’."

Enoch was keen to learn about mediation as he could see the value of peer mediation groups within the school and also wanted to use the skills within his role as director of the project and also within his community. After a week shadowing the Mediation Plus management team, where he was able to gain more knowledge on setting up mediation programmes, he completed their accredited mediation training where he was one of 12 participants from a wide variety of professional backgrounds.

Enoch said of his experience “It was a privilege for me to be able to get that kind of training from the UK. The support and encouragement I received contributed greatly to me being able to complete the course. The course was informative, interactive and the class size was just optimum. I liked the way the facilitators handled the learning materials. They were also friendly as well. The skills passed on were appropriate and make a trainee be able to handle a mediation process.”

Since returning to Uganda in November, Enoch has already started to implement his new skills and started the Trust High School Peer Mediation programme, as well as using the skills in his daily work for the project. Following the successful launch, Mediation Plus will be welcoming school Headmaster Ben to Hailsham in May to undertake their next mediation training course and advance the use of mediation in Kabubbu even further.

Mediation Plus Training Manager Joan Eades said “We are delighted that we have been able to help develop and promote mediation in this exciting new way and that the skills we teach our volunteer mediators here are now being used to such good effect as far away as Uganda. The success of our training has been evident in the professional and confident way that our mediators provide our services locally, and we have always believed there were many more individuals and organisations that could benefit from this knowledge. We are really looking forward to welcoming Ben in May and developing our work with the Quicken Trust even further.”

Mediation Plus triple service quality mark celebration

Eastbourne and Wealden community mediation service Mediation Plus is having a triple celebration after being awarded the Bronze, Silver and Gold "SQP" quality mark for their intergenerational mediation service Time2Talk by East Sussex young people's services network SPARK.

 

The "SQP" - or "Simple Quality Protects" - awards were made for demonstrating that Mediation Plus achieved a wide range of quality standards including safeguarding training, protecting confidentiality, a volunteer code of conduct and risk assessment. Mediation Plus were one of only two East Sussex organisations awarded all three levels of accreditation at the recent SPARK Awards at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.

 

Service Manager Clive Gross said "Having a locally devised and run quality assurance mark specifically aimed at smaller charitable organisations that allows them to independently demonstrate the quality of their services without the prohibitive cost and administrational burdens of others such as ISO or Investors in People is a real boost for services like ours. Service users, local agencies and funders all quite rightly want to be sure that the voluntary sector organisations they work with have high professional standards, and SQP helps us to offer them that reassurance."

 

While the SQP mark was specifically aimed at the Time2Talk service for young people and their families, which is currently funded by BBC Children in Need, the accreditation process also helped to ensure that the other mediation services being offered by Mediation Plus were also up to the mark. 

 

Chair of Trustees Barbara Molog added "While we were confident we have always provided high quality services to our communities, going through this process with SPARK made us think through everything we do again and refresh our systems and procedures. We now have everything in one place so that we can better maintain our standards of service in the future, and will fully involve our Trustees, staff team and volunteers in ensuring we do."

 

The SQP Awards round off a successful year for Mediation Plus, with Barbara herself having already won the Wealden District Council "Trustee of the Year" award a few months ago and the organizations' recent AGM welcoming two new Trustees onto their Board. Barbara added "As with all small Charitable Organisations, there is a constant need to keep a tight reign on expenditure as well as trying to maintain and grow the services and activities we offer, and it is thanks to all the team in our Hailsham office and the dedication of over 50 volunteer mediators in the community that we have managed to achieve this for another year."

 

Photo: (L-R) Service Manager Clive Gross, Casework Administrator Catherine Lulham and Time2Talk Coordinator Joan Eades with Mediation Plus's Gold, Silver and Bronze SQP Award certificates.

Mediation Plus launches ‘Get to Go’ Communication Skills Workshops

Mediation Plus – the community mediation service for Eastbourne and Wealden - are launching a new series of one-day workshops to help people take a fresh look at their skills and how they communicate.

‘Get to Go’ is aimed at people over 19 who are currently unemployed or out of the workforce who are looking to get back into training, education, employment or volunteering in the Wealden and Eastbourne areas. 

The one-day workshops – funded through the European Social Fund and Skills Funding Agency Community Grants scheme - will be running in Crowborough, Eastbourne, Hailsham, Heathfield and Uckfield from late October. They have been specially designed to help improve the participants confidence and communication skills. 

The day will combine practical opportunities to take a fresh look at how to use current skills and interests to move to the next stage, and will conclude in January with a networking event with the chance to meet with local businesses, organisations and individuals who will talk about their experiences and how they might help.

Mediation Plus Service Manager Clive Gross said “This is a new departure for our organisation, but one that builds on our skills and experience as a specialist training provider as well as many years working in our local community, helping people to communicate clearly and build their confidence to speak up about issues they may have.”

Places are free and can be booked by emailing gettogo@mediation-plus.org.uk or calling 01323 442781. Workshop dates and venues are:

October 29^th – Heathfield Community Centre 

November 5^th – Hailsham East Community Centre

November 11^th – Uckfield Civic Centre

November 17^th - Leaf Hall Arts Centre, Eastbourne

November 24^th – The Saffron Centre (3VA), Eastbourne

December 5^th – Crowborough Community Centre

Any local businesses or organisations that would like to participate in the January networking event should contact Clive Gross at Mediation Plus on 01323 442781 or email info@mediation-plus.org.uk.

Trustee of the Year seeks new colleagues ahead of Mediation Plus AGM

Mediation Plus Chair of Trustees and Wealden District Council 'Trustee of the Year 2014' award winner Barbara Molog (pictured receiving her award from Cllr Brian Redman) is looking for new colleagues to join the Board of the community mediation charity at their forthcoming AGM in October.

The Hailsham based organisation has been providing mediation and conflict resolution services through their team of over 50 accredited volunteer mediators since 2006 - including their highly regarded Time2Talk intergenerational mediation service for young people which is supported by BBC Children in Need. The Board of Trustees plays a pivotal role in helping the three part-time management team and volunteers develop and deliver the service across Eastbourne, Wealden and Lewes and is made up of a mix of mediators and people from outside of the organisation with a wide variety of skills and backgrounds.

Barbara, who joined the Board of Mediation Plus in 2012 said "I have found the last two years very rewarding and have been delighted that we have been able to help keep Mediation Plus running through challenging times for the voluntary sector, while expanding new services such as delivering accredited mediation training to local communities. We now want to bring in some new Trustees with different backgrounds and experience to help us keep developing new ways to spread mediation and conflict resolution skills to more people."

Mediation Plus deals with referrals from local authorities, neighbourhood police teams, housing associations and social or children's services and would be especially interested to hear from prospective Trustees who work or have experience in these areas, as well as in business development, finance, marketing or legal services. Trustees meet six times a year and take specific interest in different parts of the service.

Barbara added "Having had a long career in education and training, it has been particularly pleasing that I have been able to get involved with Mediation Plus development as a training centre with the Open College Network and that we have been the first training organisation in the country to create an accredited Intergenerational Mediation qualification, which we have now delivered to other community mediation services such as Brighton and West Sussex."

Anyone interested in becoming a Trustee with Mediation Plus can find out more about them on their website or speak to their Service & Development Manager Clive Gross on 01323 442781.

PCC funding boost for Mediation Plus

Mediation Plus was one of over 60 local organisations awarded grants totaling almost £300,000 from the Safer in Sussex Community Fund by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne in Lewes last week from more than 90 applications made to the fund.

Working together with colleagues from community mediation services in Brighton, Hastings and West Sussex to make a joint bid as the Sussex Mediation Alliance, the application had to demonstrate support for the priorities set out in the PCC's Police and Crime Plan, including tackling antisocial behavior and addressing community priorities such as drug and alcohol harm, as well as reducing reoffending and the impact of domestic abuse and hate crime.

The Sussex Mediation Alliance was awarded funding of £30,000 to support the four services, who together provide domestic, intergenerational and family mediation services across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. The will help to ensure the continued provision of voluntary dispute resolution to residents and communities across the county.

Clive Gross, Mediation Plus Service Manager said: "This funding is vital to help preserve our work with our local Neighbourhood Policing Teams in Eastbourne and Wealden, providing them with a valuable early-intervention service that can prevent disputes escalating and ending in serious incidents. Over 600 community mediation referrals are serviced every year across Sussex. Mediation can help to assist in the prevention of crime and reduce the levels of crime and antisocial behavior as well as addressing the fear of crime. Police officers are also offered suitable training on how to make appropriate referrals to mediation and how to encourage parties to take part, prior to any intervention."

"By working together as the Sussex Mediation Alliance, we can offer community based mediation and conflict resolution services to individuals, organisations and agencies across both counties to a high and consistent standard of services in terms of quality and working practices.

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne added: "I am delighted with the initial response to the Fund. The sheer number of applications received reflects the huge number of local organisations and community groups who are committed to keeping Sussex safe.

“I will be closely following the progress of these projects over the coming months to monitor the real impact they are delivering for residents in Sussex.”

AGM marks successful year for Mediation Plus

Members of MediationPlus gathered last week at their Annual General Meeting in Hailsham to celebrate seven successful years as the community mediation service for Eastbourne and Wealden. After having come close to closure in early 2011 due to funding cuts, Chair of Trustees Barbara Molog presented the charity’s latest Annual Report which showed a year of continued progress in delivering mediation services across the area – including the Time 2 Talk service for young people and their families – and developing community based mediation training projects to spread mediation skills into new areas.

Presenting her report to the meeting, Barbara said “The past year has seen steadily growth in our activities while keeping a very tight reign on expenditure. Our success in renewing the funding of our Time2Talk service with BBC Children in Need has provided a key platform on which to develop that service over the next three years, while support from Wealden District Council, Eastbourne Borough Council, Wealden and Eastbourne Community Safety Partnerships, and other Parish and Town Councils has ensured we have been able to support the costs of an increased number of neighbour dispute referrals during the year.”

Barbara thanked retiring Trustees Pam Hart and David Hines for their work over the past 12 months and welcomes new Trustees Caroline Adcock and Wendy Shuttleworth who were elected at the meeting. The meeting also welcomed Sussex Police new Wealden District Commander Gary Pike to the new Mediation Plus Board as the service continues to develop close working relationships with their local Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

Delivering his report, Service and Development Manager Clive Gross highlighted the success of the two pilot community mediation training projects that have been delivered in 2013 and the recruitment of two cohorts of new accredited volunteer mediators to the service.

Special Guest Speaker Miriam Wilkinson from 3VA’s Speak-Up Forum then told the meeting about a new project looking to develop the use of Restorative Justice in Sussex and how mediators and mediation skills could be used to help deliver it. Clive Gross added “We are very excited to be part of this project as Restorative Justice is very close to our work in resolving disputes without the need for legal action. We hope it will become part of what we can offer the local community over the coming years in conjunction with our local partners.”