Categories
Articles News

Among All The COVID Negatives, Positive Wisdom Can Emerge by Thomas DiGrazia

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…

Continue Reading

Categories
Events News Programs Tips for Mediators Training Webinar

Your CRA has been busy planning virtual events for you!

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.

Categories
Articles Events News

We would LOVE to help you!

We would love to share your thoughts and help you network with peacebuilders in Hawaii at CRAHawaii.org website! If you are hosting an event relating to peacebuilding/conflict resolution, we would love to help you promote it. Please submit your event information at https://www.crahawaii.org/contact/. Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA) members: If you have any articles you would like us to post or share at CRAHawaii.org, or presentation or workshop ideas to support peacebuilding/conflict resolution community in Hawaii, please submit it at https://www.crahawaii.org/contact/. Please contact us at info@crahawaii.org  if you have any questions.

Categories
Mediation News Tips for Mediators Webinar

How Do We Help Our Community Recover Quickly?

Community re-opening plans and policies are changing so frequently and rapidly to react and adapt to the new daily discoveries in uncharted territories. As we get ready to welcome back visitors to the islands from various different communities, much needed “hope” is starting to roll in along with new sets of uncertainties and fears to our community. According to Accipio, unpredictability, stress, conflicting access to resources, perceptions and personal values are some of the causes of conflict. We have seen so many conflicts in our society already, and we can expect to see many more along our road to recovery. They need to be adressed quickly so that our community is able to pivot and adapt to the new norm quickly and thrive together. This is a prime time for us, the conflict resolution professionals and advocates, to play a critical role in supporting the community. We have tools to meet wherever the conflicts are and knowledge and ability to offer options in how disputes are resolved and how parties can participate, to create an optimum environment to make people feel safe and foster resolution. In order to do this well, we need to be sure that we are well. Matsunaga Institute for Peace’s webinar recording of the “De-Stressing:laughing Your Way Through These Unprecedented Times” by Lu and Tom Digrazia is available at https://youtu.be/fDSTEV2pLt8. Hope you are all well because our community needs us more than ever.

Categories
Mediation News Programs

Rapid Response Mediation Program

The fight against the Novel Coronavirus has created financial hardships for many. Tenants are stretched to pay their rent, and landlords are worried about how to pay their own bills. If landlords and tenants don’t talk now and work out payment plans, they may find themselves fighting in a back-logged eviction process when the moratorium is lifted. To assist in these negotiations and maintain a positive working relationships, there is a service available through community mediation centers, called Rapid Response Mediation Program. The Rapid Response Mediation Program offers mediation through videoconference, telephone, or a secure text-based online platform. An impartial mediator helps property managers or landlords and tenants to discuss a variety of options that will enable landlords to continue receiving some amount of payment and tenants to craft a realistic future for remaining in their home. Because of the immediate community need for this service, the Rapid Response Program is being offered for no cost. If you have tenants or are a tenant that have difficulty paying their rent due to furloughs, layoffs or other complications from the COVID-19 crisis, please call contact the mediation center on your island below and schedule a mediation through this free program. Here is the program flyer. Oahu: The Mediation Center of the Pacific 1301 Young Street, 2nd Floor Honolulu, Hawai`i 96814 Telephone: 808-521-6767 Fax: 808-538-1454 www.mediatehawaii.org Big Island: Ku`ikahi Mediation Center 101 Aupuni Street, Suite PH 1014 B-2 Hilo, Hawai`i 96720 Telephone: 808-935-7844 Fax: (808) 961-9727 www.hawaiimediation.org West Hawai`i Mediation Center P.O. Box 7020 Kamuela, Hawai`i 96743 Telephone: 808-885-5525 Fax: (808) 887-0525 www.whmediation.org    

Categories
Articles Mediation News Programs

Sharing a Column: “Socially distant mediation can aid landlord, tenant”

By  Tracey Wiltgen and Tom Mitrano Full story is posted at: https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/05/03/editorial/insight/tenants-feel-the-squeeze-socially-distant-mediation-can-aid-landlord-tenant/ With thousands of layoffs and furloughs, tenants are stretched to pay their rent, and property owners are worried about how they will pay their mortgage and other bills. If owners and tenants do not talk and work out payment plans, they may find themselves in bitter disputes frustrated by a back-logged eviction process now and then later when the stay-at-home moratorium is lifted. In response, the five mediation centers recently created a joint “Rapid Response Owner-Tenant Mediation Program.” Using videoconference, telephone or a secure online platform, an impartial mediator helps owners and tenants discuss options, such as payment plans, temporary rent reduction, deferred payments, and other creative solutions. The goal is finding a way for owners to receive some fair level of payment that also lets tenants stay at home. The incentive to compromise is clear: Making a plan, even a temporary one, can help relieve fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the future. The community mediation centers are providing the owner-tenant mediation services at no cost to the participants. Mediation cannot solve all problems. But even during a pandemic, mediators need to — and can — use safe, civil, and respectful ways to solve conflicts and take their services, socially distanced, directly to people who want these services, wherever they are.  

Categories
Articles Mediation News Tips for Mediators

Virtual Alternative Dispute Resolution

As we continue social distancing to fight COVID 19 pandemic, we are all adapting to the new norm to get things done. Association for Conflict Resolution shared a couple of Virtual ADR articles last week: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/04/fmcs-says-early-investments-in-virtual-mediation-paying-off-during-pandemic/ https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/video-mediations-the-future-of-36273/ Locally, The Mediation Center of the Pacific started to offer the option long before the pandemic and they are continuing to help community resolve disputes while people are staying at home. (See our past post at http://www.crahawaii.org/news/the-mediation-center-of-the-pacific-is-continuing-to-help-resolve-disputes) We would like to learn how you are innovating in your practice to resolve conflicts and build peaceful relationships in the era of social distancing. Please reach out to us at info@crahawaii.org and let us know. We will feature it in our news page so our community of conflict resolvers can learn from each other and thrive. Stay well!  

Categories
News Webinar

Upcoming Virtual Talk Story Event on April 28, 2020

Aloha, Thank you for joining us for the talk story event last week on Self-Care in the Era of Social Distancing with Dr. Maya Soetoro. It was great to see people from all over the globe! Dr. Soetoro has another virtual talk story next week. In case you are interested,  we are sharing an upcoming virtual community series of events to explore the theme, Building a Beloved Community. The event is hosted by The Institute for Climate & Peace in partnership with Ceeds of Peace & The Matsunaga Institute for Peace. Their first event brings together two peacebuilders for conversation over a cup of tea. Building a Beloved Community (a virtual talk story series) Guests Puanani Burgess and Maya Soetoro Tuesday, April 28, 2020 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM HST Register at https://bit.ly/3eOJUVM   About Guests: Puanani Burgess, the process and design facilitator for Building a Beloved Community and Maya Soetoro, Associate Specialist at the Matsunaga Institute, and Co-Founder of the Institute for Climate and Peace and Ceeds of Peace.

Categories
News Videos

Judicial Independence, Impartiality and Integrity Concerns

In case you are craving for a great discussion, sharing Chuck Crumpton’s message below. Thank you for sharing, Chuck! For those who may be interested in a great discussion with William S. Richardson School of Law Dean and Constitutional Scholar Avi Soifer and former Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge, University of Hawaii Counsel and St. Louis School head Walter Kirimitsu on judicial independence, impartiality and integrity concerns: You can view it there at https://youtu.be/MqzcN4g1Ryc.  You can also view it on the youTube playlist (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQpkwcNJny6mcIz4nEpCmS3ViaJ_EqbbH) for Life In The Law. In addition, you will be able to find and play the show on demand on thinktechhawaii.com and as a podcast on iTunes.

Categories
Articles Mediation News

The Mediation Center of The Pacific is continuing to help resolve disputes

Helping People Resolve Their Disputes Through Video Conferencing Mediation   The practice of social distancing and sheltering in place are critical to fight the Coronavirus Pandemic. The stress of meeting these requirements and adjusting to our new lifestyle has resulted in increased conflict among families, co-workers, landlords and tenants and many others. To help people address conflict while complying with social distancing mandates, the Mediation Center of the Pacific, Inc. (MCP) has adapted its direct mediation and dispute resolution services by offering videoconference as well as phone mediations. With the assistance of MCP’s impartial mediators, people can proactively resolve their conflict by talking through the terms of a mutually agreeable solution safely from their homes. Click below for more details: MEDIATIONCENTER.APRILUPDATE