Ten volunteer mediators from Mid Shore Community Mediation Center recently completed follow-up training toward their Certificates of Training. The certificates are awarded upon reaching a recognized level of training as mediators.

Mediation Center volunteers must complete a 45-hour basic mediation course, followed by apprenticeship and evaluation before they may conduct mediations. Those volunteers who wish to obtain the optional Certificate of Training must also participate in an evaluative strategy session and five-hour follow-up training.

This additional instruction reinforces the basic mediation training, with the perspective of actual mediation experience to place it all into context.

The follow-up training was conducted at Sojourner Douglass College in Cambridge by Erricka Bridgeford, Director of Training for Community Mediation Maryland. Fourteen volunteer mediators from the Center for Conflict Resolution at Salisbury also participated.

Mid Shore Community Mediation Center Executive Director Peter Taillie reports that about half of its approximately fifty active mediators now have completed the follow-up training toward their certificates.

Clients from Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties bring disputes of all kinds to the center for help in resolving them peacefully. The no-cost service allows participants to reach solutions on their own that are agreeable to all parties, often bypassing any need to resort to the legal system.

Family issues, neighbor and landlord disagreements, workplace disputes and a wide variety of other conflicts are all amenable to mediation, which can help reduce tensions before they escalate into violence. Mediators are neutral facilitators of the discussions, with the parties themselves determining their own outcomes.

Taillie expressed his pride in the volunteers who participated in the additional training.

“This demonstrates our volunteers’ hunger to maintain and improve their skills,” he said. “We are all continually striving to provide the best service possible to our clients.”

For more information on mediation, to make a contribution, or to volunteer as a mediator, call Mid ShoreCommunity Mediation Center at 410-820-5553 or visit www.midshoremediation.org.