Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Does your community provide interpersonal mediation?

[Jeanne Goodman (goodmanj]

Hi Mary,

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 8:36 PM, Mary Vallier-Kaplan <marycvk [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:
>  We are interested in learning how other communities meet this need.  We have 
> talked about developing a voluntary peer mediation system but have had 
> several qualified mediators indicate concern about our doing that among 
> ourselves, with minimal training and experience etc.  One suggested we create 
> a pool of funds from our dues to support mediation as needed.  How does your 
> community meet this need?

At JP Cohousing, we have a CPR (Conflict Prevention and Resolution)
team. Many of the members of that team have an amateur practice group,
but membership in that group is not required. If you are having a
conflict with a neighbor, you can

a) choose to attempt to work it out yourself
b) find a mediator of your own -- either professional or not
c) call on the services of the CPR team to help you to resolve it.

We have found this to work very well for us.

I hope that helps.

Jeanne Goodman
Jamaica Plain Cohousing
Boston, MA