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- VACCR
began the campaign for the Virginia "Peace
Plate,"
a specially designed license plate for community peacebuilders
- like mediators - and others who want to see more
peace in the world.
- VACCR
concluded the outreach portion of it's Hewlett grant
for Community Solutions. The outreach portion included
presenting information about the program at conferences,
getting the word out to potential users and conducting
facilitations. A PowerPoint
Report on
the two year program has been prepared by the Institute
for Environmental Negotiation at the University of
Virginia.
- VACCR
developed a new website to provide the public, potential
Virginia Solutions clients and it's members with up-to-date
information about community conflict resolution in
Virginia.
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VACCR began to implement it's
Community Solutions program. During 2003 VACCR conducted
eight regional training programs in public policy mediation
and facilitation. About 200 mediators received the full
training and another 300 local government, development
and environmental organization staff were presented with
a morning workshop on uses and best practices. |
VACCR received grants from
the Hewlett Foundation and from the National Association
for Community Mediation to 1) develop the VACCR organization
and 2) to create statewide capacity to facilitate large scale
public policy, environmental, land use, etc. public disputes
and decisions. That effort is now known as "Virginia
Solutions." |
VACCR members worked throughout
the year to identify and prepare grants for new projects
that could benefit Virginians. Two projects which received
the go-ahead for full grant applications included the
Hewlett Foundation and the National Associatio for Community
Mediation.
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- The center directors
met for a retreat in Ashland, Virginia in December
of 2000 and decided to form the Virginia Association
for Community Conflict Resolution.
- Center
directors and volunteers worked with the Department
of Dispute Resolution at the Supreme Court of Virginia
to help persuade the Virginia General Assembly of
the need for additional funding for mediation in
the courts of Virginia. In the end the General Assembly
provided an additional $500K annually to the Supreme
Court for mediation in Virginia.
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Photo of VACCR founders, December 13, 2000, Ashburn, VA
From left to right are, Frank Dukes, Lawrie Parker, Rob
Scott, Tanya Denkla, Bob Glover, Beckie Riffe, [our facilitator],
Christine Poulson and Carolyn Miller.
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The Coalition was instrumental in
helping to define the standards that would become the rules
for Virginia mediator certification. Center directors worked
with other mediation interests in Virginia to help craft
the final rules and encourage the development of two pilot
court mediation projects - one in Henrico County and one
in Prince William County. One important area of influence
was the implementation of a "substantial relevant experience" exception
in the Certification Standards for the college degree requirement.
Centers felt that one of the goals of mediation was to work
with mediators who shared the demographic characteristics
of their clients and thereby have a diverse corps of mediators. |
Executive Directors of Virginia nonprofit
community mediation centers began to meet together informally
under the name of "Coalition of Community Mediation
Centers." The goals of the Coalition are to provide
mutual support and encouragement for the growth of centers
and share best practices and ideas.
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