The value of community mediation

 

Event Details:

Grab a coffee and some breakfast at the Rawthmells Coffee House (on the lower ground floor of RSA House) to fuel an informal conversation about this topic at the RSA Breakfast Club.  Don't worry about being an expert - the more diverse the voices present, the more constructive and interesting the conversation will be.

 

Community mediation involves the deployment of trained practitioners who help people in dispute to resolve their differences without external intervention.  The parties engaged in conflict may be neighbours or may belong to larger residential groups.  The issues involved can include nuisances such as noise, anti-social behaviour or alleged harassment, teenage-parent conflict within a family, landlord-tenant issues in social housing, or dis-harmony in managed residential communities.

 

Where mediation is successful, the debilitating effects of the dispute or conflict are removed and improvements in quality of life for those affected can be dramatic.   But how can these beneficial effects be measured other than in subjective terms?  To justify investment, the benefits need to be measured in money terms.  But how can this be achieved?

 

This conversation will be hosted and facilitated by Dr John Allison FCIArb FRSA, Chair of the London Community Mediation Council.

 

John will invite you to consider two categories of benefit that can arise from community mediation:

 

Savings to the public purse:

Where mediation succeeds, there is no doubt that the cost of statutory interventions is significantly reduced - community police, anti-social behaviour teams, social landlords, social workers, etc. need no longer intervene.

 

Value to the Parties involved in the dispute or conflict

The monetary value to the parties involved may sometimes be very apparent - avoidance of job loss, avoidance of eviction and homelessness, etc.  But, what about the value of benefits that are not apparent to the outside observer - increased wellbeing due to removal of stress and anxiety, improved health, renewal of previously fraught relationships, etc?

 

He will argue that

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All are welcome to participate in this conversation and explore these issues over breakfast.  So please come and join in.  No specialist knowledge or experience is necessary, but mediators, researchers, and social economists are encouraged to participate.

 

Event Type:

Seminar, Debate

 

Mediation Sector:

Community

 

Who should Attend:

Lawyers, Mediators, Police, Religious Leaders, Community Leaders, General Public, Local Authority Agencies, Politicians, Social Services.

 

Cost:

Free of charge

 

• Improvements to wellbeing are the primary benefits of community mediation and these can be measured in monetary terms using the wellbeing valuation method

• Savings to the public purse are secondary benefits and, though significant, they my not represent the largest component

• Overall monetary benefits are the sum of the above and can provide surprisingly large net returns on investment in community mediation.