Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA)
Happy New Year, everyone. The year 2020 brouht many challenges and made us all realize our true core and priorities in life. We are ready to start the brand new year to break walls and build bridges to foster peaceful and collaborative community strength. Wising you all a healthy year 2021 & hope to see you in person this year! Conflict Resolution Alliance
Among life events causing the most stress and resulting medical illness, divorce ranks as second, only after death of one’s spouse holding the number one spot. Given this reality, if your marriage is beyond repair, you are faced with a stark choice. You can enter into the violent world of adversarial divorce—with its often long-term, extreme expense, and children-damaging results—or discover the more mindful and appropriate process called Collaborative Divorce to end your marriage in a more peaceful, cost-effective, private, and sustainable way. The challenge for most people detaching from a marital relationship is to be able to peacefully process the emotional divorce rollercoaster. This rollercoaster consists of extreme feelings of loss, rejection, anger, fear, sorrow, insecurity and anxiety on the one hand, while often mixed with positive feelings of separating from your spouse. The Collaborative Divorce process helps couples separate with more mindfulness and clarity. In the Collaborative Divorce process, the spouses and their respective Collaborative Attorneys all work together mindfully and appropriately to problem-solve and reach an agreement that meets the needs of everyone involved. At the beginning of the Collaborative Divorce process, the spouses and their Collaborative Attorneys sign a contract committing to resolve all issues without resorting to litigation or threats of court intervention. A Collaborative Divorce also addresses the financial issues and emotional rollercoaster, so the couple is highly encouraged to use a financial specialist and mental health professional whom expertly and efficiently support the family through the divorce process. Additional advantages to the Collaborative Divorce process are that it is faster and more economical for complex divorces, particularly where considerable financial assets and children’s needs are involved. All relevant information is shared in team meetings, transparently and in a timely manner, so the divorce moves forward swiftly and privately. Hawai’i litigated…
We have a keynote speaker, Dr. Brian Jarrett*, presenting on “Integral Mediation”, at the annual meeting. We are gathering virtually to help you connect with fellow peacebuilders safely from the comfort of your home as all other events we have done since earlier this year. This is the first annual meeting since our organization became independent and changed the name to Conflict Resolution Alliance. We are excited to share what we could accomplish in our first year. We hope you can join us! In case you haven’t registered, below is the information: What: CRA Annual Meeting When: Friday, November 20, 2020 3pm – 5pm (Hawai’i Time) Where: Via Zoom Register at https://annual.eventbrite.com Please see CRA2020AnnualMeetingFlyerAndAgenda for more information. *About the Keynote Speaker: Dr. Brian Jarrett is a Professor and Chair of the Department on Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, & Peacebuilding Program at California State University Dominguez Hills. Dr. Jarrett is a lawyer and professional mediator and arbitrator in both the United States and Canada. He also holds a Ph.D. in Sociology. His interests include Mediation, Arbitration Dispute Systems Design (DSD), Restorative Practices and Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ). In recent years he has originated work in Integral Mediation, which promotes interdisciplinary practices in mediation. His practice ranges from work with local communities to international organizations. In both his written work and classroom teaching, Professor Jarrett works to bridge theory and practice in the field of Dispute Resolution. Dr. Jarrett’s talk will be about the sociological aspects, and how the professions and guilds are shaped, and how mediation is subject to some of these “forces” as a “field”. Will discuss the field theory of sociology by Pierre Bourdie.
With the 5:1 Kindness Challenge Commemorates Annual Intl. Conflict Resolution Day October 15, 2020 The Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA) and four partnering organizations are asking the Hawaiʻi community to take a pledge of kindness—that is to perform five random acts of kindness each day for one month starting Oct. 15. Pledgers also commit to recognizing the kindness of others by posting videos or photos on social media that capture kind gestures happening around the community. The idea is to start a buzz about human goodness on social media, at the dinner table, or at the water cooler (at a safe distance of course) and to shift the collective focus away from the stories of disaster, destruction, and divisiveness we hear about in the news every day. There is science behind the challenge that shows how impactful one act of kindness can be. What separates healthy and happy relationships from miserable ones is a balance of positive to negative interactions. Think of it as a simple formula for building healthy relationships: It takes five positive interactions to make up for every one bad encounter you have with someone, a 5:1 ratio. Social psychologists call it the Golden Ratio. Even small simple kind gestures like a smile, a “thumbs-up” or holding a door open for someone can be banked for that one time your lesser angels take over. Beyond maintaining relationships, researchers from the University of Portland show that when we witness profound kindness our autonomic nervous system triggers an impulse to act altruistically toward others. This emotional state, called moral elevation, precipitates the urge to pay a kind act forward. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the 5:1 Kindness Challenge. By signing the pledge, participants also commit to spreading the word and getting at least one more person to pledge. The…
There are so many events scheduled in October in commemoration of Conflict Resolution Day, October 15, 2020. All events are done virtually, which gives us great opportunities to attend more events and connect with people from various parts of the world! Check out our events page for upcoming conflict resolution & peacebuilding events at https://www.crahawaii.org/events/.
Please join us for a special event that Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA) is sponsoring! This will be an encore presentation of “Indigenous Conflict Resolution: Practice and Integration” followed by a live questions and answer via zoom with the speakers on Friday, October 23 from 12 PM to 2:30 PM Hawai’i time. This event has been approved by the Hawaiʻi State Board of Continuing Legal Education for 2 CLE credits (1 CLE credit hour and 1 Ethics credit hour). Register at https://indigenousconflict.eventbrite.com. Program Summary: Indigenous conflict resolution practices, including Hoʻoponopono and native peacemaking, have been used by both Native Hawaiian and Native American groups to address conflict in families and the greater community. A distinguished panel of legal academics, practitioners, and peacemakers will probe the possibilities and implications of integrating indigenous conflict resolution practices in the practice of law and the court system. Co-Sponsors: Hawaiʻi State Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, Ku’ikahi Mediation Center, Matsunaga Institute for Peace, Maui Mediation Services, The Mediation Center of the Pacific, and West Hawai’i Mediation Center. Special Thank You: The Hawai’i State Judiciary Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, The King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, Native Hawaiian Bar Association, and ‘Ōlelo Community Media A copy of the event flyer is attached below. For questions regarding event logistics, please contact us at info@crahwaii.org.
Sharing a White Paper of one of Conflict Resolution Alliance members, Jerry Clay, and Zoe Payne. Message from Jerry: Get informed and get involved below: if you like what you read, sign our petition and subscribe to stay updated on our progress and to find out how you can help us reinvent government. In order to solve houselessness, we must ensure every stakeholder–people experiencing being houseless, the nonprofit agencies working to assist them, the government, and citizens in communities who are impacted by houselessness–has a seat at the table when formulating a solution. This can be accomplished through a process called “Partnering.” In partnering, every stakeholder must attend a workshop designed to build a shared solution for the project. Workshop facilitators encourage the various parties to form relationships that act as a basis for collective brainstorming and problem-solving. At the end of the workshop, the group details their agreed-upon solutions in a document known as a “compact”–an aspirational agreement that provides specifics as to how the group will carry those ideas forward. Unlike our legal system, which assumes everyone coming into the system has access to the necessities of navigating it, partnering doesn’t require externalities like lawyers and paralegals or an in-depth understanding of law. Instead, it merely asks for participation, and its non-adversarial approach allows disparate groups to come together to problem-solve without concerns about power imbalances. It’s time government departments went through a partnering process with all groups both using and providing houseless services so that real solutions can happen together. I have been involved with partnering for over 20 years, and have worked with groups ranging from the Hawaii visitor industry to the Hawaii State Bar Association. To further explain how partnering is far better suited than our legal system for addressing civic problems, I will expand…
Sharing an article published in Civil Beat by one of Conflict Resolution Alliance members, Tom DiGrazia… We are now into September and the COVID-19 virus has claimed the lives of around 190,000 U.S. citizens and has currently infected over 6 million of our people with no end in sight. COVID has sharpened our focus on how collectively unhealthy we Americans are. The rampant incidence in America of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dietary abuses and lack of exercise and the accompanying related illnesses among us have been negatively hijacked by COVID-19. This hijacking has been created and worsened by design, ignorance and omissions in our nation’s predominant lifestyle in 21st-century America. This lifestyle of ill health and the adverse preexisting health conditions it manifests have made us extremely susceptible to this contagion. Our present federal government has also stripped away our democratic veneer. Our politics — particularly on the national level — have become extremely factionalized. For instance the politically metaphoric concept of Red and Blue states, parties, groups and individuals are more often now the perspective lenses through which many Americans observe the world. This fragmented perspective — us versus them, the “others” — includes traditional and obvious issues such as race, religion, immigration, and mass proliferation of guns. Yet this cultural divide now embraces fear-based COVID-related concerns. These concerns currently include wearing masks, social responsibility for others, and whether children go to school or workers return to work. This us versus them tribalism is reflected in our social media. Every human act, foible, error, statement or tendency — real, imagined or perceived — has become subject to instant social media support or scorn and mockery. The Cyber Jury Increasingly, the cyber jury of our peers either expresses fanatic agreement or disagreement with the views emerging over the Internet…
Join us for the Difficult Conversation Series that is a series of six virtual interactive workshops that will help you be ready to have difficult conversations in our professional and personal lives. More information in attachment and at https://difficultconversation.eventbrite.com.
The year 2020 has been truely unique. The challenges we have faced revealed our personal and community strengths and weaknesses, made us re-evaluate many aspects of our lives, and enabled us to make numerous pivots and adjustments in reaction. As we continue to ride the waves of new realities, your Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA) has been busy planning virtual events to help you excel in resolving conflicts and building peace in our new norm!To kick off the fall events, the “Talk Story” event is scheduled on August 26, 2020 for you to share & learn Best Practices & Regulatory Considerations of Remote ADR Platforms, followed by a series of seven “Difficult Conversation” workshops to help you navigate those conversations well. Hope you can all join us! All events are virtual and you don’t have to leave your office or home to attend. (And as long as you have a shirt on, you meet the event dress code, too 🙂 ) Check out all CRA events along with other conflict resolution/peace building events information posted at our event page. If you know of any events that will help develop peacebuilders in Hawaii you would like us to share on our event page, please reach out at our contact page.