news from the front (office):

We've had a really busy month, preparing for all the good change to come for CMC.  Volunteers continue to help us by organizing our files and improving our procedures, not to mention answering phones, running errands, and providing important input as members of our Strategic Teams.  (Hey, Jim, "team" does sound more fun than "committee"!)

We are beginning to work with an outside bookkeeper, Julie Mitchell, a respected member of Knoxville's accounting community, Mitchell Emert & Hill , and a specialist in nonprofit accounting and taxes.  Thank you, Julie, for working with CMC and making the practical side of life a pleasure.

We so appreciate those volunteers who signed up to help with truancy mediation, due to start next month.  I'll be in touch to orient you and schedule you for these mediations.

Thanks to a lead provided by our own Mr. Don K. Ferguson, we've received a generous $2000 grant from the Knoxville-based Robert Lee Weiss Foundation, to support our peer mediation program. Peer mediation is a venerated program at CMC.  The peer mediation program has been a part of our work for almost seven years, and we've started peer mediation at 10 Knox County public schools, concentrating on those with the most at stake in reducing school violence.  We have programs at:  Bearden Middle School, Carter Middle School, Cedar Bluff Middle School, Gresham Middle School, Halls Middle School, Karns Middle School; Northwest Middle School, South Doyle Middle School, Vine Middle School, Whittle Springs Middle School, Halls High School, West High School, and Austin-East High School, with interest coming from both Carter High School and Gibbs High School.  Over 300 peer mediators have been trained by CMC, and 400+ student mediations held in Knox County schools.  We are going to be actively seeking financial support from local, state and national foundations, the legal community, and interested individuals for our peer mediation programs in the coming months.

For the past six years, much of CMC's peer mediation networking and training workload has been carried out by our many wonderful  VISTA  volunteers.  We are in a VISTA-less moment right now (although we are still able to see our "vista"), and so our need for and appreciation of CMC volunteer aid is very acute.  Our board secretary, Lisa Carroll, is convener of CMC's Peer Mediation Advisory Council, and one of our new volunteer mediators, Janet McMullen, worked with our out-going VISTA volunteers, Sarah, Lesley, and Cathy, before they left, to get all their work documented and training materials updated. We welcome any volunteers who would like to serve on the Advisory Council or work with us in our training. 

Peer mediation allows students to help other students resolve conflict on a daily basis, and gives students who mediate and who participate very effective communication and peace-making skills for use in their daily lives.  It is an alternative to traditional discipline---instead of being punished for being in conflict, students take the opportunity to look closely at a dispute, explore the emotions behind it, and identify ways to prevent the same problem in the future.  Everyone experiences conflict, but when students are continually punished for being in conflict, they become known either to themselves or other students as "bad kids". 

CMC provides student peer mediators with an extensive training, covering subject such as:  identifying and defining conflict; conflict styles; validating feelings and emotions; understanding stereotypes and bias; active listening; communication.  They also learn the same six-step mediation co-mediation process they we teach our adult volunteers.

This fall, we are also experimenting with a semester-long training in peer mediation at Nature's Way Montessori  middle school.  It's exciting to see our program enthusiastically embraced by a school which is dedicated to conflict resolution skill-building in all their students, including pre-school age.  The pre-schoolers are taught a method of conflict resolution using the "peace rug" and the "magic wand", where those in dispute bring their friend to the peace rug and use special words to declare their hurt feelings.

A Fond Farewell to Stephanie Day (Steff):

We would like to extend our utmost appreciation and thanks to our departing volunteer mediator and Treasurer, Stephanie Day.  Steff came to CMC with the Spring 2005 mediator class, already a certified mediator in Chicago, and was a super volunteer from the moment she was trained.  She was an enthusiastic mediator in Juvenile Court and, when CMC needed a volunteer skilled in financial matters, stepped gracefully and skillfully into the Board and Executive Committee position of Treasurer.  Stephanie is a banker and loan officer by profession and was ever-helpful and reassuring as we worked our way through a staff transition and annual audit.  She's gone back to her true home in Chicago, and while we enjoyed her being here in East Tennessee, we understand completely that home is where the heart is.