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Dispute Resolution Program

 

 

The Dispute Resolution Program (DRP) focuses on providing mediation, conciliation, counseling, and referral services to neighbors and others who have ongoing conflict.

 

Services are rendered for disputes that have not yet escalated to a violent level or are currently in the courts. The program helps prevent the escalation of lesser neighborhood problems into full-scale tension events.

 

A variety of approaches are used to encourage people of all backgrounds to cooperatively coexist with each other irrespective of group identity. The goal of mediation is to provide disputants with skills that enable them to resolve the conflict themselves.

 

The DRP provides formal mediation sessions that are conducted by a trained and experienced mediator. The mediator helps the parties identify the nature of the conflict. The mediator also develops a legally binding and confidential agreement that describes the parties' future relationship. Most of the DRP cases are referred to the PCHR by the District Attorney's Office or the courts.

What The DRP Can Do:

 

         - Help assess the nature of a dispute in a confidential setting and provide a client with

           skills that are necessary to solve a dispute on his or her own, if that is appropriate.

 

        - Make contact with the parties involved in the dispute in an attempt to establish a line

          of communication.

 

        - Act as go-between for as long as needed until all of the parties come to a working        

          resolution.

The DRP Cannot:

 

        - Take sides.

 

        - Force or compel.

 

        - Act as a substitute for a court of law.         

       

        - Anything that may harm a person, including violating a person's confidentiality.  

The DRP Cannot Help:

 

 

       - Persons in the same household.

 

       - Married or separated couples.

 

       - Victims of serious crimes or property damage.

 

       - Strangers who have a single incident and who are not likely to ever see each other again.

The DRP Services Are Offered To: 

     

Individuals, households and groups who have an ongoing relationship with each other.  They are usually neighbors, but can also be business people whose shops or stalls are near other, coworkers, members of a church, fraternal organization, or members of a community group.