KMC has given the directors award in the past few years to those who helped to influence and educate mediators in our community. After much deliberation, the board decided to highlight peer mediators.

KMC is about promoting peaceful conflict resolution to students, so we wanted to hi-light a peer mediator who has had a positive effect on her school and community. That young lady is Sarai Benitez - Sarai first became involved with Peer Mediation her junior year of High School, after she had gone through traumatic bullying. In her first year, she mediated over 50 students with her fellow mediators, earning her new problem solving skills, and deepening her compassion. Wanting to help more, Sarai began to take on more referrals, including from people who felt they had a conflict with themselves. She found that students felt much more safe and comfortable speaking to a peer about their emotions instead of a staff member. By the time she graduated high school, Sarai felt Peer Mediation completely changed her life. Sarai is now pursuing a career in Music Therapy at California State University, Northridge this fall.

2019 Symposium on Kids Managing Conflict

Thursday, April 25, 2019

The California Endowment, 1000 Alameda Street

Downtown LA next to Union Station

A day-long conference for everyone interested in giving students the life skills in conflict resolution and mediation they need for academic, personal, and professional success.

Last year's conference was a great success!

Great Ideas!

Lots of energy!

We need a longer conference!

And we’re building on that success.

This year’s conference includes:

• a Keynote Panel on the wide variety of conflict resolution programs available, how they differ, and what to look for in choosing the right program for your school.

• sessions focusing on starting and sustaining a program, including why and how programs end and the impact on the students and school of losing a program.

• information on documenting the nature of conflict, type of resolution, and impact so that the value of the program is measured and can be presented in fund-raising efforts.

• open discussion on shared best practices.

• exhibitors who will explain the wide variety of available programs and provide gifts to attendees.

• a panel of current and past Peer Mediators to discuss the impact of being a mediator while still in school and as a professional in any area.

JUST ANNOUNCED: THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER

KMC is honored to have Ellen Pais, past CEO of Los Angeles Education Partnership as the keynote speaker.

Ellen’s lifelong involvement in improving schools makes her the expert on why conflict resolution programs are so important to personal and professional success. They are also vital to creating educational equity so that all students have the same skills with which to manage their social/emotional behavior and can avoid the early disciplinary actions that can misdirect their energy and activity and interrupt their educational lives.

Ellen will have a great deal of valuable information for us to take back to our schools.

Sponsor an attendee for the day $75 Donate Here

Register here

KMC is excited to again sponsor the FREE trip to the Museum of Tolerance for peer mediators in Southern California Schools. We will provide free admission for your confirmed student mediators and $100 toward transportation. This trip is always a profound experience for the students who attend. See what one middle school student had to say about it.

PEER MEDIATION VIDEO CONTEST FOR STUDENTS

Have you ever wanted to tell the world how being a peer mediator has changed your life? Have you ever wanted to be an influencer on social media that spreads positivity about the things that matter most?

Well, here’s your chance!

Kids Managing Conflict (KMC) is holding a contest for peer mediators to voice why they think that peer mediation is awesome! All you have to do is make a video no longer than 2 minutes, #vlog, #selfie, or #creative and describe what Peer Mediation means to YOU and how being a mediator has affected YOUR life, school, or community in a positive way!

A $200 prize will be awarded to the winner. We will be presenting the winner with a check at the Celebration of Peer Mediation at USC on May 16, 2019. The winner and their parents will be our guests that evening for the award. (You do not have to be present to win).

The Contest Rules:

Start off by following @kidsmanagingconflict on Instagram and using #kidsmanagingconflict​

1. You must be a current peer mediator enrolled in school in Southern California

2. All entries must have your name, school, and grade in the video. Only one video entry per person.

3. Videos are to be a maximum of 2 minutes long. (Any submissions longer than 2 minutes will not be accepted). The more creative the content the better as long as you explain what peer mediation means to you

4. You must follow @kidsmanagingconflict on Instagram (if you have an account)*

5. You must post video on Instagram with #KMCContest2018

*If you don’t have Instagram, no problem! Please email your video submission to scmaef@gmail.com!

Submissions are due no later than 11:59 pm on 4/25/2019, at 12:59pm. The winner will be announced on May 1, 2019.

The KMC Board of Directors and members of the advisory board will judge all submissions. The decision of the judges is final.

All submissions become the property of Kids Managing Conflict and may be used on the KMC website, in newsletters or other communications. Students may ask that they be identified only by their first names if they prefer.

Please submit questions to: scmaef@gmail.com

We are honored to have them help coach and guide us as the organization continues to grow and thrive.

Kenneth Cloke is Director of the Center of Dispute Resolution, and a mediator, arbitrator, consultant, and trainer, specializing in resolving multiparty conflicts and designing dispute resolution system for organizations for almost 40 years. He is the author of Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution; Resolving Conflicts at Work: Ten Strategies for Everyone on the Job; Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflicts: Stories of Transformation and Forgiveness; The Crossroads of Conflict: A Journey Toward the Heart of Conflict; Conflict Revolution: Designing Preventative Systems for Chronic Social, Economic and Political Conflicts; The Dance of Opposites: An Exploration into Mediation, Dialogue and Systems Design, and several others. His book, Politics, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy: How to Discuss Race, Abortion, Immigration, Gun Control, Climate Change, Same Sex Marriage and Other Hot Topics was published in Fall 2018.

He holds BA and JD degrees from UC Berkeley, and PhD and LL.M. degrees from UCLA. He did post-doctoral work at Yale, is a graduate of the National Judicial College, and teaches at USC, Pepperdine University, Southern Methodist University and Saybrook University. He was founder and first President of Mediators Beyond Borders.

Meet Joan Goldsmith

Joan Goldsmith, M.A., Doctor of Humane Letters, has been an educator, facilitator, coach, mediator and organizational consultant with public and private sector organizations for over forty years, specializing in leadership, board development, organizational change, team building, strategic planning, collaborative negotiation and conflict resolution.

She was the founder of Cambridge College, an undergraduate and graduate school for adult professionals. She became a family therapist in the late 1960’s, and was a member of the faculty at Harvard University, where she directed the Masters of Arts in Teaching program. She is an adjunct faculty member Southern Methodist University and Pepperdine University Law School, Straus Insitute and has been an adjunct professor at UCLA, Antioch University and Tokyo University Medical School.

She is a Life Trustee of Cambridge College and Chair of the Board of Theatre Comique. She is a founding Board member of Mediators Beyond Borders and has been a member of the boards of the National Coro Foundation, The National Teachers Network, Mar Vista Family Center and Deaf Self-Help. She is founder of Women Writers: Finding Ones Voice and A Woman’s Renaissance: Coming into One’s Own. She has been a consultant in strategic planning and leadership development for major global corporations, including Deutche Bank, Viacom, Morgan Stanley, Verizon and Del Cabo Farms. She has been an advisor and consultant to school districts and teachers unions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Newark, Albuquerque, Chicago, Santa Barbara, New York City, and Newark.

As an expert on leadership development, she has coached executives of corporate and non-profit organizations in skill development and advised on programs, strategies and initiatives in their organizations. Since 2001 she has been the creator, director and teacher of a program: Women Leaders: Creating Ourselves at the Crossroads. Women leaders from many countries and diverse roles have attended sessions in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Tucson, Park City, Baltimore, Edinburgh, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Harare, Zimbabwe. This Program has been offered for academic credit at Southern Methodist University, Tokyo University Medical School; and Cambridge College.

Kids Managing Conflict, SCMA Education Foundation receives $15,000 donation from the American Arbitration Foundation on November 3, 2018.

KMC was honored to receive a very generous donation from the American Arbitration Association (AAA) on November 3, 2018 at the SCMA Fall Conference. The donation was a surprise and we were so excited to be the beneficiary of this amazing gift and it will go along way in helping our organization to support existing and new peer mediation programs in our schools. We would like to formally acknowledge and Thank India Johnson and Michael Powell from AAA for their acknowledgement of our work.

Karen Crowley-Marks receives 2018 Director’s Award at SCMA Fall Conference Dinner November 2, 2018 for her commitment to Peer Mediation at University High School in Los Angeles.

It all started in 2007 when Principal Elois McGhee had a vision to start a peer mediation program at Uni High School and appointed Karen to start it. Karen had no knowledge of peer mediation, but took the challenge to implement the program with six students.

Eleven years later, peer mediation has changed the climate at Uni High. It has increased student communication, decreased the suspension rate, and developed positive relationships on campus - "a win, win situation" in her words. The disputants are able to voice their concerns in a non-threatening, safe, confidential, and neutral environment. Once their conflict is resolved, students can focus on school and learning. The mediators, through extensive training and practice, build confidence, increased self-esteem, leadership skills, and develop a skill set that they will utilize long after high school.

Since 2007, nearly 400 students have been successfully trained as Peer Mediators. University High School is unique in that it is the only LAUSD high school on the Westside that offers such a program.

Karen’s strength was the ability to integrate Peer Mediation skills with Restorative Justice techniques.

In 2015, Karen was awarded the Educational Leadership Award from the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center (APADRC). In May, 2018, she was honored at the Galen Center by the Kids Managing Conflict foundation (KMC) for her 11 years of Peer Mediation service. Over the past 10 years, she has served on several Peer Mediation panels and was a guest speaker at the KMC symposium in April 2018. Most of all, Karen feels none of this could have been accomplished without the support and recognition of agencies such as the Southern California Mediation Association, the Western Justice Center, APADRC, and the Kids Managing Conflict foundation. For this she is eternally grateful.

Will Hoadley-Brill has always been a peace maker. When he was 10 years old he heard from a friend that he was being bullied and, as Will puts it, "he was filled with rage." He channeled that rage into a program that he started at school called the "Peace Team" which was an anti-bullying organization.

When Will entered middle school he joined the associated student body and his advisor asked him if he wanted to help people. Of course, Will said yes and they started a group called the "Upstanders". They focused on peer mediation and events for students to talk about intolerance, communication and acceptance.

Will has spent most of his young life advocating for his fellow students and being a peace maker. When he entered high school, he had this to say about starting a peer mediation program: "What I wanted to do at South Pasadena was to ensure that every single student knows they have a space that they can go, feel welcome, and talk about whatever they need to talk about. So for me these programs aren't just about learning conflict resolution . . . it's about developing and fostering a community where everyone can feel welcome an accepted and comfortable."