Conflict Resolution Education - National Criminal Justice Reference ...

and be settled without violence. The Boys & Girls
Clubs has provided the staff and members of its
affiliated clubs across the country with the opportunity
to receive training and practice in the peaceful
resolution of conflicts. These training programs are
also open to parents and other interested adults in
the community. The clubs expect that nonviolent
skills and strategies for settling interpersonal disputes
will begin to be practiced on a regular basis
through the many club activities on site and in the
home and community.
These programs have assisted our members
in reducing the level of interpersonal violence
and in supporting a positive peaceful
environment in their respective communities.
We look forward to their important
message reaching all our youth members
in all our Boys & Girls Clubs.
James D. Cox, Vice President of Urban
Services, Boys & Girls Clubs of America 8
AmeriCorps Conflict Resolution
Training Project
Through a partnership with the National Association
for Community Mediation (NAFCM),
AmeriCorps, the national service program, has
offered training in conflict resolution to its members
since September 1995. NAFCM has provided
specialized training in the skills and strategies of
conflict resolution to more than 9,000 AmeriCorps
members in 46 States, American Samoa, and the
District of Columbia. 9 Many of the AmeriCorps
members who have been trained as a result of this
partnership are working directly in kindergarten
to grade 12 classrooms, using their training to help
teach students conflict resolution and to set up peer
mediation programs in schools.
The AmeriCorps trainings have been conducted
using NAFCM’s national membership network of
community mediation centers and a special modular
curriculum designed specifically for this project.
Each of the three modules of the curriculum focuses
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on a different aspect of conflict awareness and management.
The professional trainers at each center work
with the AmeriCorps programs in their area to provide
flexible scheduling and a training curriculum that is
tailored to the needs, background, and experience of
each particular training group. Community mediation
centers are also available for further training and technical
assistance, because addressing local needs has
been the hallmark of their contribution to this national
service program.
Community Relations Service
This unique component of the Department of Justice
seeks to prevent or resolve community conflicts
and tensions arising from actions, policies, and practices
perceived to be discriminatory on the basis
of race, color, or national origin. The Community
Relations Service (CRS) works to bring awareness,
education, and action into communities throughout
the United States that are experiencing conflicts
resulting from a multicultural environment. In these
communities, insensitivity to different racial or cultural
groups may generate friction and, possibly,
disruptions between groups at school. However,
the diversity found in school communities offers
opportunities for individuals to learn more about
one another and to enhance their global awareness.
Conflicts may arise in schools when different student
groups “stake out turf” in certain areas of the
school—for example, the cafeteria, the resource
room, or the athletic fields—or during school dances
and sports events; when they leave racist graffiti
in the rest rooms or other parts of the campus; and
when they form gangs on campus. Conflicts also
arise when parents feel that their children’s race or
ethnicity is not being treated sensitively by teachers,
counselors, and administrators.
When disruptions and violence are racially motivated,
the shock waves threaten the whole fabric
of the community. All who are responsible for
school safety and security must keep abreast of demographic
changes in the community that will alter
the pattern of student interaction in a school. Conflicts
that take place outside school, in the community
and in the students’ neighborhoods, may affect