· The Ventura County Superior Court encourages Mediation and refers all parties involved in a Small Claims dispute to contact VCDS. Court letter
· VCDS co-sponsors continuing legal education courses with the ADR Section of the Ventura County Bar Association.
· VCDS gives away student scholarships annually to attend our Mediator Training Courses.
· VCDS mediators volunteer their time every Friday in Ventura and Simi Valley Small Claims Court and on Mondays in Simi Valley Small Claims Court and mediate for FREE.
· VCDS is one of over 70 statewide offices referred by the California Department of Consumer Affairs offering free to low-cost mediation services. Mediation Programs
· VCDS and the Ventura County Superior Court (VCSC) were presenters at the 2011 California Conference on Self-Represented Litigants held in San Francisco June 8-10. Breakout session was titled, “Civil Harassment Mediation Program (CHaMP)” which was an overview of the collaborative development of court-connected mediation programs for civil harassment programs, highlighting several successful programs. VCDS and VCSC were chosen to be the project lead on a 10 court statewide effort involving the following counties: Butte, Inyo, Lake/Mendocino, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne.
· Our very own past president Cheryl Allain-Mee and A. Marco Turk (CSUDH Professor) co-authored for VCDS a California State Best Practices Civil Harassment Manual for courts seeking to implement a mediation program for the Judicial Council of California Administrative Office of the Courts.
· The Small Claims Court Mediation Program since its implementation in June 2007 through May 2011 has mediated 2,112 community disputes serving over 4,224 community residents. The program has then enabled 4,245 volunteer mediators the opportunity to give back to their community while they hone their skills through the 16,129 hours donated in court resulting with an overall 72% settlement rate.
· VCDS concluded another mediator training with 99% of the participants which will volunteer through VCDS’ probono mediation programs. Our training was spearheaded by our brilliant board member Dr. Tracylee Clarke a CSUCI instructor and an adjunct professor teaching communication and conflict management courses with Pepperdine University.
· Including this year’s Peer Mediation Jamboree students, VCDS has mentored 200 middle school students since the program’s inception in 2009.
· Each year Association for Conflict Resolution celebrates Conflict Resolution Day the third Thursday of October. Conflict Resolution Day was conceived in 2005 by ACR to Promote awareness of mediation, arbitration, conciliation and other creative, peaceful means of resolving conflict; Promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, businesses, communities, governments and the legal system; Recognize the significant contributions of (peaceful) conflict resolvers; and Obtain national synergy by having celebrations happen across the country and around the world on the same day.
· Judicial Council of California Administrative Office of the Courts has a Standing Resolution which recognizes the third week in March as “Mediation Week”. The Governor, the Legislature, the State Bar Board of Governors, and local government bodies traditionally have recognized “Mediation Week” as well. The ongoing basis will encourage courts to implement and improve mediation programs, promote public access to and use of those programs, and acknowledge the persons and organizations that have made the programs successful.