Community Boards is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

based

mediation Mediation is a structured, voluntary process for resolving disputes, facilitated by a neutral third party known as the mediator. It is a structured, interactive process where an independent third party, the mediator, assists disputing parties ...

program, established in 1976, in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States by Raymond Shonholtz. The program utilizes

volunteer Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

s from the

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

s of the city, who work with people involved in disagreements toward the end of resolving the dispute, repairing the relationship, and healing or preventing rifts in the community. The Community Boards program promotes a model of mediation that emphasizes the collective involvement of members of the community, recruiting mediators who are representative of their neighbourhoods—with direct awareness of local needs and concerns. The program utilizes a form of case management in which "case developers" make in–person contact with potential parties in order to encourage participation. Once the parties involved have consented to participate, they are assisted by a panel (usually 3) of mediators. The program is among the most distant approach to formal legal process among the various models of community mediation. The most dramatic example of this viewpoint is the contention by the program's mediators that any agreement reached should be enforceable only by the good will and voluntary compliance of the parties. Proponents have asserted that the program's impact is much broader than the resolution of individual disputes—reaching into issues of tolerance, acceptance and social justice. Community Boards has also been active in the promotion of

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

school-based peer mediation programs since 1982.

References

*''Community Mediation: A Handbook for Practitioners and Researchers'', Karen Grover Duffy (Editor), James W. Grosch (Editor), Paul V. Olczak (Editor) The Guilford Press, 1991, {{ISBN, 0-89862-561-0 *''Case Study Plus: Strengthening Our Civic Muscles'', Terry Amsler, Community Board Program, Lifelines, Summer 1996, San Francisco Foundation. 1996.

External links

Community Boards web-site
Dispute resolution Mission District, San Francisco Organizations based in San Francisco