Community Mediation Workshop

DANBURY — The Center for Collaboration at Western CT State University will host a community mediation workshop on April 26 from 5:30 to 8 pm in the Westside Classroom Building, Room 218. Community mediation uses trained mediators to resolve disputes and create partnerships within neighborhoods, families, businesses, schools, and other social agencies. Western’s Center was established in 1997. The current director is Dr Daniel Joynt.

“We are currently involved in a number of mediation initiatives throughout the community,” Dr Joynt said. “We manage disputes between parents and kids, landlord and tenants, individuals with pending divorces, and also provide training to the university’s resident assistants.”

Presenters at the workshop will be Charles Pillsbury, the executive director of Community mediation in New Haven, and Lori Charvat, the executive director of Dispute Settlement Center in Norwalk.

Mr Pillsbury has served as executive director of Community Mediation (CM) for 11 years. CM is the oldest nonprofit community-based mediation program in Connecticut. Since 1981, CM has used staff and trained volunteer mediators to resolve disputes.

CM’s mission is to provide peace and justice by enabling individuals, groups, and communities to resolve their conflicts themselves through mediation and other non-violent means. CM also offers training and education to broaden the uses of mediation as a valuable tool in conflict resolution.

Before joining CM, Mr Pillsbury practiced law for 14 years in the New Haven area. He received his law degree in 1975 from Boston University School of Law, and he holds a BA in Latin American studies from Yale University. In 1997, he was elected treasurer of the National Association for Community Mediation.

Ms Charvat’s Dispute Settlement Center is a volunteer organization that conducts peer mediation with area schools. Over the last month alone, the center conducted over 50 peer mediations in Bridgeport public schools. They are also involved in court-referred mediation in the criminal courts in Bridgeport and Norwalk and are currently exploring the possibility of building a victim-offender mediation program, with juvenile justice as the focus.

The event is free and open to the public. Interested parties are encouraged to register by April 19. For more information, call Daniel Joynt, PhD, at 837-8513.

(WestConn’s Westside Campus is at the top of University Boulevard, off Mill Plain Road in Danbury. The entrance is immediately opposite Super Stop & Shop.)