|
About Berkshire Mediation Services
History and Key Achievements
Berkshire Mediation Services (BMS) was incorporated in 1989. Non-profit status was received in 1995. In 1994, BMS received a SCORE Peer Mediation grant from the Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth. This grant was to be matched by the local school that would house the program. BMS split the grant between Herberg and Reid Middle Schools in Pittsfield. In 1996, a full SCORE grant was received for each school, allowing a full-time Peer Mediation Coordinator to be placed in each school. Also in 1996, the current director was able to begin to devote full-time to BMS allowing more time for training and generating interest in mediation in the community, with a strong focus on mediation in the schools. Last year BMS initiated a new SCORE program at Drury High School in North Adams. Other schools with peer mediation programs that use BMS for training and consultation are Mt. Greylock Regional High School, Hoosac Valley High School, and the three Pittsfield High Schools: Taconic, Pittsfield High and the Alternate School. New programs are being initiated this year at Berkshire Country Day School and McCann’s Technical High School.
In 1998, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) finished a long process to generate rules of practice in the courts. Community programs were asked to submit applications for acceptance as ADR providers in the courts. In 1999, BMS was one of 28 programs across the state to be approved, and this approval was renewed in 2002. Currently, BMS is providing court-based mediation in three of the four District Courts in Berkshire County, as well as new ventures into Juvenile and Probate and Family Courts over the past three years. In District Courts, we work primarily in Small Claims sessions. Recently, the new Clerk Magistrate in North Adams/Adams has asked us to assist in Criminal Show Cause Hearings. We increase our mediator pool by offering Basic Mediation Training annually, using a training model that was approved by the Massachusetts Bar when they had mediator panels. We have added advanced training in Small Claims Court, Parent-Child Mediation Training and are presently planning to offer Divorce Mediation Training next year. This past year we have added Permanency Mediation and mediation in Care and Protection cases to our services, and have mediated our first two cases.
Goals
In order to have skilled mediators available for the full range of community situations that may require mediation services, BMS plans to provide basic and advanced mediation training so that mediation services are available to all interested parties in Berkshire County and environs. In the schools, we will continue to make mediation training, consultation and services available so that students can learn to be student mediators and all students will learn the value of mediation as a means of resolving conflict. We will continue to expand the number of schools that use our services. In the wider community, we will continue to seek ways to provide mediation in collaboration with community police and other agencies.
Our Organization’s Constituency:
Community mediation is a grassroots effort to have a wide range of community residents trained to provide mediation on a sliding fee scale, where fees are allowed, so that the service is accessible to a highly diversified community with members from all classes, income levels, races and groups within the community. We want our services to be available to anyone who needs them.
|
