Brent Mediation Service
- What is Brent Mediation Service?
- Brent Crime Mediation Project 2007-2010
- Beyond 2010
- Projects
- Download Case Studies
What is Brent Mediation Service?
We are a Professional Mediation Provider, Accredited and Registered
with the Civil Mediation Council under the charity’s name of Centre
for Peaceful Solutions.
We accept referrals from Lawyers, Employers, Housing Providers
and Statutory Agencies as well as directly from individuals in dispute.
We can work on an hourly rate, a fixed fee or as a contracted
service provider.
As well as providing casework, we offer a range of services including training and consultancy which can be found here(link to our services)
Brent Mediation Service supports the community with conflict resolution by using the fees it earns from professional casework to fund projects
in the community.
Why not get to know us? Don’t wait until it’s urgent
Getting to know a mediation practice that you can rely on might save
a lot of headaches later on. If a dispute arises you will feel more confident speaking to a mediation service that you already know
and trust. David and Maria can keep in touch with you on a
no-obligation basis and will be happy to discuss any aspect of mediation practice, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or conflict resolution
at your request.
| Please click here to complete our request form |
back to top
Brent Crime Mediation Project 2007-2010
This project is now complete. Watch this space for feedback and a review of the project
| If you would like us to contact you the review is complete please click here to complete our request form |
- Introduction
- Brent
- Brent Crime Mediation Project
- Centre for Peaceful Solutions (CPS)
- Mediation
- Why Mediation
Reduction in crime level and reduction in fear of crime is a goal for all national and local governments. In recent years urban city areas such as inner-city London are targeted by violent criminals using firearms and knives. Most violent crimes are also linked to drug trafficking, and condition of living in the area. For example, it is likely to seriously and severely affect boroughs and districts which are suffering a high degree of depravation in housing, education and employment.
Brent, an outer London borough is such an area. Brent Council's Brent Crime Mediation Project is run under the aegis of Crime & Disorder Act (1998) and the national government's Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) and Community Safety Partnership (CSP) programme. A variety of agencies are involved in this project which includes, inter alia, many law enforcement agencies such as police both local and Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), Probation Service and the Courts etc.
Brent
Brent is the most densely populated borough of outer London. Ethnically and culturally it is perhaps the most diverse area of outer London. It is also one of the most deprived areas in the country. It shares many of the inner-city problems like violent crimes, unemployment and poor housing and educational facilities with Inner London.
Brent is widely respected for its many crime prevention initiatives and community safety programmes using CDRPs and CSP's.
Brent Crime Mediation ProjectBrent Crime Mediation Project is part of the reduction of crime and making residential areas secure and safe as part of the priorities project under Invest to Save Bid (ISB) programme and has statutory backing in the form of Crime and Disorder Act (1998)(CDA).
Objectives
The objectives of this project are to reduce crime especially violent crimes using knives and firearms, and provide the community with a safe and secure living place.
Processes
This will be achieved by a multi-prong attack on causes of deprivation. These include among other things better employment and training opportunities, offering alternative solutions to violence and generally offering a pleasant, secure and safe environment for people to live in.
This is to be achieved by a joint effort from a variety of agencies working in partnership. Such partnerships use the principles laid down under CDRP and CSP.
Centre for Peaceful Solutions (CPS)Centre for Peaceful Solutions (CPS) will be responsible for delivering the deliverables of the project. CPS is a registered charity operating locally within Brent Borough; facilitating the use of mediation by mediating in disputes and conflict resolution in local schools where children and youths can observe mediation in action. And they provide a range of mediation services to the residents of Brent in neighbourhood and employment disputes. Further CPS trains suitable local residents in the skills of mediation. Although currently they operate locally, they have aspiration to go global.
CPS is headed by Maria Arpa. Maria is a resident in the borough. She is well aware of the social situation in the borough. She has been mediating and providing training in mediation skills across Brent for sometime. Maria was previously Chief Executive of Lambeth Mediation Service. She is a former Chair of Mediation UK. She has extensive experience in community mediation in several boroughs in London. The Brent Mediation Project will be building upon the early work to develop mediation in Brent which has been funded by South Kilburn NDC, Harlesden and Stonebridge NRF and Government Office for London (GOL). This is a classic example of ISB.
Their operation is heavily dependent on grants-in-aid from central and local governments. At the present time, Brent Crime Mediation Project funded by the
Treasury is the main funding source for CPS.
In this project, CPS will be responsible for introducing a range of mediation services including training local residents starting with pupils at local schools, neighbourhood disputes and finally high risk mediation between gun and knife carrying disputants.
Introduction
National and local governments have tried various methods of crime reduction such as law enforcement using statutory powers like Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), eviction orders and dispersal orders. All of these have met with some degree of success. Law enforcement methods do provide immediate relief, but enforcing the law is expensive and by nature divisive. It also creates resentment because of power imbalances.
The enforcement policy fails because it does not tackle the root cause of the problems. Even though the enforcing powers such as police and the judiciary are part of the government the ordinary person sees them as an imposition. Mediation, however, tackles all these issues.
It is important to recognise the diversity of mediation practice. This is because mediation is not monolithic but pluralistic. There are many different approaches to mediation practice, with varied impacts.
Because mediation is flexible, informal and consensuous and not limited by legal processes, it can reframe a contentious dispute as a mutual problem. Mediator's many skills, not least among them dealing with power imbalances, mediation can facilitate collaborative and integrative problem solving (rather than adversarial destructive legal judgement). Mediation is capable of producing a win-win result.
Mediation does not look at "Precedent", but allows the mediator to be an entrepreneur.
At community level, the Social Justice Theory relies on mediators "reframing" skills to convert the problem to a common interest in
a larger perspective. Thus, the mediation can make the weak stronger by helping them to establish alliances among them. It helps to form effective local grassroots community structures.
Most forms of crimes, particularly violent ones, start with a dispute or conflict. In any case "Conflict" is a part of human existence. There are many ways of resolving such disputes. One of the ways of resolving conflict or dispute is to use the non-violent process of mediation in managing and resolving conflicts effectively. This has been recognised as an effective means of resolving conflict mainly for the following reasons:
- informality
- consensuality/ (mutuality)/ (voluntarily)
- economy
- relationship
- neutrality
- without prejudice
- privacy
- non-violent injury - free solution
- flexible,
- nonthreatening
Use of mediation in finding solutions to dispute is part of a major project involving a number of organisations with a stake in making the local area safe and attractive for current and future residents. These organisations have signed to a local area agreement (LAA) which will no doubt pressurise them to fulfil their part of the compact.
Once local residents see the tangible benefits accruing to them by the partnership of the various organisations, they too would like the locality to remain attractive and safe by standing up against those who are trying to sow the seeds of disharmony.
As CPS have experiential know-how on mediation and are recognised by locals as such, they have agreed to provide mediation service to the project. This will include among other things, training pupils at local schools and the general community. CPS will initially develop programmes for training the local residents which can later be exported to neighbouring boroughs.
Beyond 2010- To focus on introducing non-violence and conflict resolution to all parties living and working in marginalised, ‘hard to reach’ disempowered communities.
- To teach non-violence and conflict resolution as a proportionate and safer response to disagreement and disputes among people who feel excluded, unheard or frustrated.
- To transform communities into a collaborative model of problem solving
- To allow access to mediation and mediation training to people who would not normally know of or be able to afford it
- To become self-sustainable in order to fund our work in communities so that we can maintain our independence and impartiality
Education and Mediation
The model is directly aimed at changing attitudes to conflict and dispute resolution. We do not want to be ‘experts’ that create dependency. We want to show people how they can influence the outcomes of a dispute and help them to know and understand all the options available.
Many people, because of their fear of crime, call the police, the local authority or their housing officer in the belief that the agency will arbitrate in their favour. Our case studies show clearly that this course of action is most likely to escalate the conflict.
So, not only do we intervene in a dispute to bring relief and resolution, we also invite people to training to understand why we fight.
In developing our model we have discovered a holistic approach which works partly to timetable (Education) and partly dynamically (Mediation in practice). Of course, this will not happen overnight as we are seeking to change the disempowered mentality which believes that someone else (police, housing officer etc) will sort out interpersonal conflicts but we have established ourselves successfully in Brent with many testimonials.
Mediation in Practice
Traditionally, community mediation is offered by referral. This means that a third party (housing, environmental health, police, community safety, social services) decides that mediation is the best option for a dispute. Since the referring agency also holds the power of enforcement, being ‘sent’ to mediation can be regarded as a low level punishment.
Community mediation services are often funded by statutory agencies on Service Level Agreements (SLA’s). This poses some major problems:
- The mediation service can only provide mediations to those people who are referred as there is no funding for self-referrals. This creates inequality in communities.
- Mediation can simply be seen as a part of an enforcement package. Often, the referring agency worker does not prefer mediation. The referring agency prioritises targets over human interest.
- Cases are referred when they have escalated and, in many cases, the referring agency intervention has contributed to that escalation.
- Few mediation services can accept cases where there has been physical violence or threat to life because of the risks involved and few referrers will refer these cases because any resulting harm could be attributed to back to the referrer
- In cases which specifically deal with knife and gun crime the mediation service must be transparently independent. To receive funding which is related to Government Crime Reduction Strategies prejudices the mediator’s position because they can be misinterpreted as ‘informants’. Experience has taught us that such referring agencies often expect mediation services to blur the boundaries of confidentiality and pass on information. This can endanger lives if a mediator has unsuspectingly been debriefed not knowing that the information will be passed on as intelligence.
- Often the conflict is with the referring agency – (low grade house conversions with no soundproofing) and the problem is written off as a neighbour dispute when conditions are intolerable and unsuitable for both parties (e.g. housing a couple with two children under five above a retired couple with heart disease).
If the referrer has a vested interest in the outcome whether to meet targets or
gather intelligence, the mediator must be clear and transparent about that objective. The Centre for Peaceful Solutions has been staunch in its refusal to breach confidentiality. It has actively sought guidance from criminal justice experts on information sharing protocols.
The Centre for Peaceful Solutions is proud of its independence and transparency and wants to continue to earn the trust and respect of local communities so that when a dispute arises which looks set to become violent, people involved will feel safe enough
to call us. This is how we gain access to situations which are below the radar of the authorities and only enter the public domain after a fatality has occurred or the situation is adversely impacting on others.
Being able to positively influence these situations from the inside is the most likely way to create social change.
We have learned that being independent, transparent and grounded in the philosophy and practice of non-violence is the only way to build trust.
We are not averse to taking referrals from referring agencies in appropriate circumstances and where the parties are aware but we wish to shift the focus to working with the agencies to develop their own mediation skills and to encourage people to self refer.
Using our model, which has been developed over ten years of practice, we work dynamically where we are called to do so. This means that we use a process of self referral which gets people used to seeking non-violent help when they are in dispute
and therefore transforms responses to conflict.
- Example: A group of boys are resorting to violence as they are discriminated against by both the African-Caribbean and Islamic communities. By networking with the mothers we were asked to help them communicate better with their sons so they can help to keep them out of trouble.
Our referrals come from word of mouth, recommendation and self referral. The training and networking events offer opportunities for people to get to know us, discuss their conflicts and seek the appropriate help.
Using our process, we support disputants or friends and relatives of disputants to help them solve their own disputes and make the necessary psychological changes to live with their agreements and transform their response to conflict.
Typical cases involve neighbour disputes, gang related violence, community / police conflict, cross cultural discrimination and hate crime, teenage homelessness, family arguments, youth / authority conflicts as well as structured work in schools.
Our impartiality also means that we can approach the police, local authority, school or other ‘authority’ as a party in a dispute. This can short cut the often cumbersome complaints procedures and create a measurable and timed action plan with a ‘no blame’ approach.
- Example 2: We delivered conflict resolution work with Year 9 boys in a secondary school. We identified issues with specific teachers. We worked between the teachers and students in a non-confrontational way. We organised a meeting where the students listened to the teachers experiences of them and then we organised another meeting where the teachers were asked to only listen to the students experiences of the teachers. The teachers and students humanised each other through these meetings and relationships improved.
The benefits of our model can be quantified thus:
In mediation 8 out of 10 cases resolve when the disputants come face to face. However, in community mediation often less than 30% of referred cased come face to face. Using our method we are achieving over 80% cases coming face to face.
The long term social effects of this work are:
- Less calls to the police and council
Earlier recognition and resolution of conflict
Crime reduction.
Reduction in fear of crime
Increase in public confidence
Increase in social capital
Increase in volunteering
Cross-cultural trust and networking
The individual effects of this work are:
Increase in self esteem
Increase in communication skills
Enhanced ability to problem solve
Enhanced ability to consider a range of options
Enhanced employability
Better interpersonal relationships
Reflective responses rather than impulsive reaction
back to top
Education
Training and development
Our training gives people a stepped approach to recognising and addressing conflict.
The training is unique and draws on philosophies of non-violence, systemic thinking and mediation theory.
The Centre for Peaceful Solutions offers two forms of mediation training for the community.
In the first instance, there is a two day introduction to conflict resolution which has so far been offered to over 400 participants including residents, police and statutory agencies. This training provides an opportunity for people to work through a ‘live’ conflict with other community members receiving support and empathy from people they have never met. It is a powerful forum for building trust and participation.
This is followed by an intensive mediation skills training for those that can commit to volunteering.
A small group have also been trained as high level mediators. (We define ‘high level’ as disputes with a high risk of harm to human life.)
The Centre for Peaceful Solutions also runs an ongoing programme of networking meetings and short trainings to retain the skills, share best practice and meet like minded people who will commit to spreading nonviolence theory and practice.
The training has been successfully piloted in a high security prison. Several prisoners commented that they would not have committed their crime (including murder) if they had understood these theories on conflict earlier in their lives.
The importance of the training that Maria Arpa has developed is that the training is not a means to an end. Whilst the training provides people with the skills to mediate it also requires the participants to be aware of and mediate their own inner conflicts therefore providing turning points in people’s lives. It is this connected experience where the participants see each other’s transformation which inspires people to take it forward.
Cascading
Community members who hold influence in their communities are identified and approached to receive training. We continue to support them to cascade the information, attending mediations with them where appropriate in their communities,. Cascading involves sharing the principles, methods and techniques of mediation to pass on to their community members.
Example: The Chair of a Women’s Refugee Forum attended a two day training and brought 4 other Muslim women. 3 of those women completed the full training. One of those women introduced more Moslem people to the next two day training. Through this cascading, one woman gained the confidence of her community and set up a Family Mediation Centre through her mosque. Through her centre, she mediates family disputes in the Moslem community and has managed over 50 cases. She engaged the interest of others and now leads a basic training in nonviolence to groups of women who all expressed how this training had not only resolved conflict for others, but had changed their relationships with their own sons and husbands.
Results of the training on the community
The community requested that Maria Arpa write papers on topics of interest. Topics include how men can be in charge of their families without behaving violently and understanding war mentality parenting.
We provided work experience to improve her English and increase her employment prospects.
She has converged the training with the teachings of the Qu’ran and is now a sought after speaker and advocate of non-violence in the Moslem community
A group of Moslem mothers have arranged for a group of teenagers to receive the training from Maria Arpa
We had interest from an Iraqi male who has done the training and is making referrals
to us.
Example: We were introduced to a community member with access to ‘hard to reach’ young people. Initially he was suspicious and wary of our purpose. The police were suspicious of him and he had been subjected to harassment. The trust building process took almost 2 years. We mediated between his community and the police over a 12 month period and de-escalated tensions on the streets. We felt that he had lots to offer and found his attitude to conflict resolution refreshing. We persuaded him to attend our training. He completed the high level training and prevented a retaliation shooting. He has recommended people to attend our training and regularly refers people to mediation who would not ordinarily consider it.
back to top
Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries would include:
Refugees and asylum seekers
Minority communities
Young people ‘at risk’ of offending
Disengaged and excluded youth
People with disabilities
Offenders, ex-offenders and their families
Victims
‘Hard to reach’ communities
Gang members
A new funding partnership for The Centre for Peaceful Solutions
The Centre for Peaceful Solutions is seeking a collective partnership with funders who have a genuine interest in the difference mediation can make to social change agendas.
We want to work with organisations that respect our model and are open to mutual learning and development.
We are seeking relationships with organisations that want to benefit from what we have to offer. We offer a perfect setting for mediation training and practical case work experience to those with who want to receive mediator training to take back to their workplaces and public facing services. We can also provide a mediation service for funder organisations to help with any form of dispute.
Currently, there is more demand for our services than our resources
can meet.
The Centre for Peaceful Solutions has initiated and facilitated an introduction between women from different cultures. The group has agreed to meet and focus on demonstrating how people from different cultures and religions can live together in harmony.
Maria Arpa is leading a project which offers a space for communication training to Moslem teenagers. They are challenged to consider their reactions and responses to conflict and equipped with skills to communicate their needs in a way that is most likely to be heard.
back to top
We manage a diverse range of cases. Confidentiality is paramount.
We charge fees for professional services and use those fees to support the charity
to do pro bono work. We take on pro bono work on a case by case basis. There is usually more demand than we can supply for pro bono work.
Typical fee based cases include:
- Team members finding it difficult to work together
- Neighbours in a property dispute
- Family break-up
- Commercial disputes between purchaser and provider
Typical pro bono cases include:
- Neighbours in social housing in a lifestyle clash
- Community relations with police
- Persons from poorer communities threatening violence
- Stand offs between warring parties in deprived areas
| Download Case studies Community1 Community2 Community3 Community4 |
| See our projects |
| See our work |
Justice from the Heart in Schools
Our schools project is tailor made to fit in with the rhythm of the school. We have worked in a number of schools. Case studies can
be downloaded.
| Download Case studies Schools1 Schools2 Schools3 Schools4 Schools5 Schools6 |
| Student Voice please click here to complete our request form |
Contact us
back to top
www.civilmediation.org
www.cmcregistered.org
Registered Charity No 1117611
Contact us by email or by phone 020 8962 9420
You can also visit www.themediationlink.co.uk | www.mariaarpa.co.uk
