Our Approach
MCRC, Inc. is a nonprofit organization assuring access to conflict resolution services at the community level with control and responsibility for alternative dispute resolution maintained throughout Howard County. MCRC, Inc. strives to:
- Train community members to serve as volunteer mediators and facilitators to provide mediation, youth restorative services, school-based services, and conflict management education. Our volunteer recruitment process is selective, seeking to build and maintain a volunteer roster that is representative of the community’s diversity with regard to age, race, gender, ethnicity, income, and education;
- Provide conflict resolution services at no cost or on a sliding scale
- Provide flexible scheduling to accommodate clients work and school schedules;
- Encourage early use of mediation, youth restorative practices, and school-based community building and conflict resolution services to prevent violence and to reduce the need for court intervention, as well as provide these services at any stage in a dispute;
- Mediate community-based disputes that come from referral sources including self-referrals, police, courts, community organizations, civic groups, religious institutions, government agencies, and others;
- Educate community members about conflict resolution, mediation, and youth restorative practices;
- Maintain high-quality volunteer mediators and facilitators by providing intensive, skills-based training, apprenticeships, continuing education, and ongoing evaluation of volunteers;
- Work with the community in governing the conflict resolution programs in a manner that is based on collaborative community program support and collaborative problem solving among staff, volunteers, and community members;
- Provide conflict resolution services and education, to community members who reflect the community’s diversity with regard to age, race, gender, ethnicity, income, education, and geographical location.
[adapted from 10 points of Community Mediation]