Conflict Resolution Services
LCCA offers to main restorative conflict resolution approaches: Mediation and RJ Community Conferencing Circles. We also offer conflict resolution training and conflict coaching services. Read on to learn more. Please don't be shy to reach out and ask us to help find the right fit for you.
Mediation
Mediation is an opportunity for people in conflict to sit around a table with two mediators to help them have a difficult conversation. Mediation offers participants the opportunity to express themselves in their own words, the be heard, to hear what others have to say, and to work together to build agreements about how to move forward that meet the needs of people involved.
MEDIATION IS CONFIDENTIAL, NON-JUDGMENTAL, AND VOLUNTARY
Voluntary means that all are at a mediation at their own free will and can end the process at any time. No one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do. No one is forced to agree to anything they don’t want to. The mediators are non-judgmental. They are not judges. Their job is to listen, ask questions, and try to clarify what is important to everyone. They don’t give advice, decide who is right or wrong, and don’t take sides. Mediation is confidential. Nothing is recorded on any device. Mediators may be taking notes and they destroy those notes after the session.
RJ Community Conferencing
Restorative Justice is a theory of justice that views crime, conflict, broken rules and laws, misbehavior, etc as harm to relationships, as opposed to infractions of societal laws. Community Conferencing, a practice of Restorative Justice, is a voluntary process in which those involved in and impacted by harm, along with respective support networks, are invited to sit down together in a one-time circle process. With a trained facilitator, circle participants address the harm, its impact, and dialogue together about what is needed to repair the harm and what will prevent the harm from happening again. Through a Community Conference, those involved and impacted by a particular harm create agreements that help bring accountability for those that caused harm, which are then monitored by the community and done to the satisfaction of those that were harmed.
Community Conferencing can be used in conflict and incidents of harm, minor or major, in communities, schools, justice systems, companies, places of worship, collectives, etc. Before participating in a Community Conference, participants meet one-on-one with a trained and invested neutral facilitator who explains the process, answers any questions, and supports all participants getting ready for the process. Like mediation, Community Conferencing is voluntary, non-judgmental, and confidential. It aims to center the healing of those harmed by an incident, bring holistic accountability to those that caused the harm, provide all participants with networks of support, and prevent future harm.
Training
RJ Training
Restorative Trainings offered include:
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2 day Restorative Practices training
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2 day Community Conferencing training
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4 hour Talking Circles training
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Talking Circles are a tool or practices of Restorative Practices that can be used for infinite reasons: community-building, problem-solving, decision-making, processing a local or national incident, celebrating, etc.
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4 hour Restorative Theory: Paradigm, Reframe, and Transformation
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4 hour What is Accountability?
Conflict Coaching
Conflict coaching is a one-on-one process that develops the client’s skill at handling conflict, or supports the client in working through a particularly difficult or complex conflict. LCCA's clients may focus on any one of three levels:
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Improving a significant relationship that is damaged by on-going conflict;
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Building skills at constructively resolving conflict;
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Strategically managing organizational change.
Anyone who feels stuck in a conflict can benefit from working with a LCCA conflict coach. Some goals that our coaching clients have had include:
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To build interpersonal and organizational competence at engaging in conflict;
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To manage or lead an organizational change initiative that is expected to be contentious or challenging;
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To develop the interpersonal and conflict competencies required to excel at the next level in one’s career;
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To increase one’s capacity to effectively manage a diverse body of direct reports;
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To turn contentious issues into drivers of creativity and growth for a team or organization
When working with a LCCA Conflict Coach, the client sets the goals and agenda. The coach does not tell the client what to do, and all conversations are confidential. In many of our coaching relationships, coaches assist clients with a current conflict. The focus is often on diagnosing what is fueling the conflict, understanding multiple perspectives, and planning for constructive engagement.
A coaching relationship can be for as short as one session, an on-going relationship, or a series of meetings targeting a specific event in the client’s life. Coaching sessions can take place in person or via zoom.