Building a mediation movement

Wednesday 6th October 2010

PeerLink members present at school mediation forum

On the 24th September, over 60 delegates came together at West Bromwich Albion football club to share ideas and knowledge from around the world on mediation in schools. The aim of the day was to learn what is happening already, to consider how best to promote peer mediation here and globally and to hear from young people involved in the process.

PeerLink members were asked to present their experiences of being mediators and what impact mediation has made in their school and for them personally, here’s what they thought of the day:

Hi, I’m Natasha,

I’ve been a PeerLink volunteer for a few years now, running workshops and presenting at various events for other young people.

I was invited to attend the Student Mediation Forum and I did a presentation with two students, Aleeza and Kenrick from Lammas School in Waltham Forest, winners of the 2010 PeerLink Award for resolving conflict in schools.

In our presentation we shared our experiences as peer mediators and I also spoke about my involvement with PeerLink. Lots of people wanted to ask us questions at the end of our presentation and they also gave us a lot of feedback and were really engaged with what we had to say. I think it was really powerful having young people sharing their experiences.

I spoke to a lot of people afterwards and made contact with someone from the university I’ll be attending next month. She’s very interested in setting up a mediation project there so I can hopefully continue to mediate while attending university. That was one of my highlights, the other was meeting an inspiring woman who works directly with young people who are in gangs – to me that takes a lot of courage and hopefully I can do something like that later in life.

Natasha, X”

Natasha, Aleeza and Kenrick went down a storm with the organisers and people who attended. They really impressed QS Sir Brian Neill who had this to say about them:

Natasha, Aleeza and Kenrick went down a storm with the organisers and people who attended. They really impressed QS Sir Brian Neill who had this to say about them:

“There was enormous value in hearing from young people from Leap and Lammas School who have actually had experience of working in peer mediation and taken the time to train and practise with the purpose of helping other people in their school and taking forward this vital work of reducing conflict. This way of approaching problems will live with them throughout their lives and their practical skills in mediation as well as their sincerity and enthusiasm really struck me today. To see young people sharing this experience has been really inspiring and I wish we had time to hear more!” Sir Brian Neill (QC)

Here’s what Aleeza and Kenrick from Lammas School had to say:

Aleeza: ‘It was a great experience and I felt honoured that I was chosen to attend and speak about our mediation service. It gave me the chance to learn about the way others deal with conflict. The questions and feedback session was really helpful and the conference gave me ideas on how I can improve my own mediation skills.’

Kenrick: ‘I found the mediation conference very useful. I gained a lot from different people’s points of view and their different perspectives on mediation. I also thought the comments were helpful. Iit was interesting to hear how how different areas use mediation and how mediation can be used in different societies.’