Mediation Hertfordshire
Monthly Bulletin
June/July 2011
This month there’s news on a number of different issues;
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A group of mediators met one Saturday morning to talk about a number of issues relating to how MH can best support and develop volunteers and help them gain the maximum enjoyment out of their time with the service. The following areas were discussed in some detail;
An Action Plan was produced at the end, which Polly and I will work on to develop a proposed timetable for taking suggestions forward.
Some of the main points which came out of the discussions are that mediators did like the peer support group meetings which ran until last year and that they would like these to be revived. Rupert suggested that they could follow the format of a Book Group which he is part of, where the same group of people plan meetings at each other’s homes and schedule these in to fit around their other commitments. This means that the membership of each group would remain fairly constant and that they would be geographically located around the county so as to facilitate volunteers’ attendance. However, there would be flexibility about who attends which meeting, both to provide the maximum number of opportunities and to bring in fresh perspectives from new or occasional group members.
Another area of debate concluded that we should agree minimum requirements from team members, so as to ensure that volunteers are maintaining their practice and developing skills – as well as keeping in touch with the office re: availability, case issues etc. One of the suggestions is that everyone attends an annual appraisal meeting, which would be a way of touching base, talking about cases and issues arising from those and discussing training needs and any other relevant items for the mediator.
We also discussed training needs and Polly circulated a list of possible themes, which had already been suggested to her. Once we have collated all the responses, it will be possible to draw up a programme of workshops and training sessions and to then identify potential trainers.
All of this will take some time, and Polly and I plan to meet shortly to take this forward. It is hoped that the initial Peer Support groups will be ready to meet from September.
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Maverick TV
Most of you know by now that we were involved with this TV Company, which has made a series of 3 programmes called ‘Next Door Nightmares’. We were only told of this change of name recently as it was originally to be called ‘The Mediators’. The new name has been chosen by Sky and, unfortunately, we do not have control over this decision.
The series will be shown on Sky 1 at 8pm on 3 Tuesday evenings, beginning on 5th July. The programme will be taped for us so should be available to view at some point in the future, if you do not have access to Sky. We have also been promised a DVD of the series. Please promote it to family and friends and we will be seeking to get some publicity locally for Mediation Herts’ contribution to its making. Our mediators, John and Mark, will feature in the third programme.
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Fundraising Work & Rebranding of MH
As you know, we have taken on a freelance fundraiser, who will also be working on rebranding the organization - by way of changing the look of our leaflets and other written material and redesigning the website. The new website should also feature a direct link to the Blog, to make it more accessible and user-friendly.
Michele is currently working on 4 areas;
It is hoped that this work will put us in a good position to bid for pieces of work, once many services are put out to tender. It will also raise our profile amongst schools in the private sector, which are probably in a better position to afford to buy in our services than those in the state sector. However, the intention is that any surplus generated by this approach can be reinvested in areas where money is scarce so that we do not lose sight of our core value of inclusivity.
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Workplace Mediation
Just a bit more detail about the bid to Awards for All – following our Let’s Talk event in March, it became apparent that we were appealing to the voluntary and not-for-profit sector, a number of whose staff attended the half day workshop hoping to come away as fully-trained mediators!
Michele’s proposal is that we work in partnership with one of the local Councils for Voluntary Service (probably St Albans CVS) to offer some of their members a workplace mediation, to help them resolve a current dispute – whether between staff members or involving paid staff and volunteers. Alongside this, Mediation Herts would run a series of half-day workshops teaching some basic mediation skills, such as active listening and reflecting, recognizing red flags and our own conflict management styles.
The overall idea is that this would be a pilot to test out the market, with the results being used to put together a larger funding bid for an expanded service across the whole county.
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas which might support this initial bid, please do let me know or contact Michele directly on michele@mediationherts.org.uk
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My Travels
I’m planning to do another stint of volunteering this year – as I did back in the summer of 2007 – and this time I’m heading off to the Ukraine to work on the restoration of an old monastery. My family has links to the Ukraine as my parents were originally from that area, when it was part of a pre-war Poland. I hope, therefore, to find out more about the area and experience the fun of living and working communally with a group of young people for a couple of weeks!
I will be away from work for 3 weeks, from the 17th July, so Jackie and Sarah will be holding the fort during that period. I’m very happy to share my experiences and photos once I’m back with anyone who would like to know more so please do let me know.
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