Peer Mediator wins a Diana Award

Friday 21st January 2011

Joseph has been a Peerlink member since 2009 and was trained by Leap Confronting Conflict as a Peer Mediator to volunteer in his school (Lammas School and Sports College) resolving conflicts amongst other students.

Due to his commitment to the project and his hard work he was nominated for the Diana Award and we are delighted to say that he won!

Here is what he had to say:

“It started with just a normal celebration assembly in school. The other school mentors and myself were asked to sit at the front of the assembly hall. Time was dragging on. My name was still not mentioned for an award!

The other mentors were called up to get their certificates. I thought they had forgot me :-( I was then brought up to the stage to win and acclaim the prestigious Diana Award!

It felt great.
But how?

Then I remembered the work I had done with younger students through the summer school, peer mentoring, lessons, volunteering youth work, and also LEAP!

Thanks to LEAP I was able to expand the very few life skills I had to enter a whole new world of Peer Mediation. Not only did LEAP empower me with many skills to use in everyday situations, but also provided me with greater confidence. Because of LEAP, our successful Mediation Team and me, we have been able to lower the amount of conflict in our school and the community. Leap has been a great help to me and my peers. I am honoured to say I am a LEAP Peer Mediator.

As a team we can say we have successfully trained up our younger students to carry on the service we leave! We know for a fact the service is in good hands.

Special thanks to all the LEAP trainers, workshop hosts and also the organisation for giving us a chance!”

Joseph Molloy-Smith

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