POPULAR TRENCH Town DJ, Horace "L.A." Lewis, recently intervened in an argument between two members of his community and was able to defuse the potentially volatile situation with a few words.
"They were mad at each other," Mr. Lewis recalls. "I went over to them and used some of my mediation teaching that I learnt and it jus' squash out in a matter of seconds."
The training he speaks of is a course in mediation that he and 22 others recently completed at the Dispute and Resolution Foundation. The 23 graduated as certified mediators and are now qualified to settle disputes and bring about amicable resolutions.
Describing the course, Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Foundation, Donna Parchement, said, "they have learnt things like the seven-stage mediation model which gives them a structure or a process that they can utilise when trying to move people from conflict to resolution."
Donna Stewart, who graduated with Mr. Lewis at a ceremony mid last month at the Peace Centre on Camp Road, Kingston, said the training was invaluable. "I learnt to control some of the anger that I have and how to deal with other people outside," said Miss Stewart who serves as Assistant Public Relations Officer of the Jones Town Area Council.
"I learnt how to listen to what other people have to say and don't just jump and make a decision for one person," she said, adding that, "you don't shove things on people."
The 40-hour mediation training programme is offered to community leaders in Trench Town and neighbouring communities in Kingston under the Social Conflict Legal Reform Project (SCLR). The project, a joint scheme of the governments of Jamaica and Canada, began in 1999. It was developed to train Jamaicans to resolve conflicts and disputes without resorting to violence. The $29.4 million programme is being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and is scheduled to run until 2004.
The programme has two main components, said SCLR's project manager Loretta Reid Pitt. They include improving the country's legal framework and community outreach. On the legal side, the programme aims to work with the judiciary to improve the administrative process in local courts and develop a mediation system to resolve civil disputes that's connected to the court.
Under the community outreach component, 150 mediators are to be trained. In addition to the 23 recent graduates, 53 graduated in July and August after completing the training in Flankers, St. James.
Miss Parchment noted that all the mediators would work out of peace and justice centres where community members could access arbitration on various issues.
"They will offer this service not only to their community but to people who may be referred by the courts or by churches or anyone else who wishes to use the mediation service," she said.
Training mediators could help stem the rise in violent crimes in Jamaica, said Mrs. Reid Pitt. "I would think that of the deaths resulting from domestic disputes, there is some number that could have been prevented if the persons involved had kept a cool head and sat down with an objective party who could have mediated their disputes. We could add to this number of preventable crimes the woundings and assaults that would have been prevented in a similar manners," she said at last month's graduation ceremony.
The graduates also believe their training has put them in a position to make a difference. "All of us here that have been trained in mediation, we're an asset to our communities now," said Michael Francis, the Jones Town Baptist Church's Youth Director.
He added: "In my area there are about three of us as trained mediators now. So if there is an outbreak of violence we can go in and talk with the people and get them to settle down. We can intervene right there instead of it going on to something bigger."
"It's a nice thing -- mediation," said Mr. L.A. Lewis. "I think everyone in Jamaica should have access to this class."
Jamaica Information Service (JIS)
