This month we have the following items in the Newsletter;
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Awards for All – Workplace Mediation for the Voluntary Sector
With Michele’s help as our fundraiser, MH submitted an Awards for All application to offer both workshops and workplace mediation cases to small voluntary sector organisations which are experiencing conflict. We have been successful in securing funding for this work and the service will be offered from January - December 2012. Michele will support the setting up of the project and advise on monitoring requirements, but the bulk of the service will be delivered both via 4 skills workshops and through delivering workplace mediation to volunteers and paid workers within the not-for-profit sector.
Those of you who have had specific training in workplace mediation and would like to be involved in this work, I’d love to hear from you. I will be calling a meeting to discuss logistics, time commitment etc. around mid-December so please respond to this promptly so that you can be included when I’m planning timings and venue. I have noted interest from several team members already. There will be a modest fee for undertaking cases – more information will be available at the meeting.
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Another successful bid means that MH has secured a small pot of money to train some St Albans residents groups and Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators in conflict resolution skills. This work will also be delivered in the early months of 2012.
If any of you enjoy the training experience and would like to be involved in this project, please let me know. The funding will not stretch to paid sessions, but it will provide great experience of working with grassroots groups and community activists who will use the skills within their local communities and cascade them more widely.
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Forthcoming Events & Training
As you know, Polly has been very active this year in pulling together training sessions and organising the Peer Support Groups and other events. Polly will be taking a break shortly as her second baby will be arriving in February, but she has been very busy putting together a plan of activities for 2012 which will be distributed to everyone before Christmas.
As some of these fall in January, I will trail them for you here so that you can get the dates into your diaries and calendars;
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Mental Health Awareness Courses
A number of you have expressed an interest in training which addresses issues around mental health, given the increasing number of referrals we now receive where one or both parties are affected by mental health problems.
I was looking into buying in some whole-team training, but this is quite an expensive option. However, there is an organisation in Hertfordshire, which offers free training for volunteers and staff working in the voluntary and mental health sectors and their training is really excellent. So, if you are interested in accessing this training, please go to the following website;
Before you can book on to a course, you will need to complete their Membership Form – when you will be allocated a personal ID number, which you need to use to apply for any training sessions. After that, look at their Calendared Course Booking Form for information about future training sessions, which are run at different venues across the county. Some courses do book up very quickly, so if you are keen on any particular one I would suggest booking in early.
Just a couple of important points;
Although the courses are free, there is a penalty charge for non-attendance which may be charged to Mediation Herts as the volunteer-involving organisation – so please ensure you attend, once booked on to a course.
The programme for 2012 has not yet been finalised, so you may not see any courses being advertised at present – but more should be appearing shortly.
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The Psychology of Influence
Duncan ran a really interesting session in October, based on his experience as a Hostage Negotiator. Those of us who attended were struck by the similarities (and some of the differences) between those situations and the ones we deal with as mediators. Some of the themes of the presentation addressed the issue of how we can actively influence our clients, without overtly giving advice or telling them what we think they should do. I’ve summarised some of this in the bullet points below;
If you would like more detail and information about this fascinating subject, please contact Duncan directly.
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Supervision Sessions
I would like to offer individual supervision meetings to anyone who would find that useful, and I will be circulating some dates and times shortly – for meetings in December and January. Please can you look out for this message and choose a time to suit. I will also be contacting some of you directly about meeting up, where I feel a catch-up and review would be really helpful in terms of future planning.
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Office Closure
The office will be closed for Christmas/New Year from noon on Friday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 3rd January.
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