RRTP UPDATES APRIL 2008!
On This Page:
1. Listserv Welcome & Greetings!
2. Background Information about this Forum
3. Spring 2008 Updates on the RRTP Program
4. Listserv Posting Instructions
5. RRTP Program Summary/Overview
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RRTP LISTSERV GREETING!
Dear RRTP Listserv Subscribers:
Greetings! And welcome to the Reservist Reintegration and Transitions Program (RRTP) Email Listserv group.
If you are a recipient of this email, it means that you and the National Association for Community Mediation have been in touch to some extent about our work, vision and common goals regarding the healthy reintegration of military personnel in the National Guard and Reserves.
WIth newly subscribed members coming on board each week, we would like to extend to them a warm welcome and introduction! If you have already been welcomed to the listserv, please do not stop reading here! New information and updates are below!
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Background/Listserv Welcome:
The National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) launched the RRTP pilot in June of 2007 as a national initiative to provide mediation services and training for individuals and families in the National Guard and Reservist community. The Program enjoyed enormous success in the first half of its pilot phase.
Funded by a grant from the JAMS Foundation, the priority of the Program is to support successful military-to-civilian life transitions. One of the primary goals of the RRTP is to build capacity among active personnel, families, veterans, and other community members for the constructive resolution of interpersonal and family disputes during the difficult phases of deployment and demobilization. An equally important goal is to solidify a case referral and information exchange network that will compliment existing social and health services that provide resources and information for returnees, their families, civilian employers, and more.
The purpose of including you on this RRTP Listserv is to create a forum in which we can exchange and discuss current issues, events, announcements, research, and even questions or inquiries related to our work of easing the stressors of deployment and reintegration. Additional objectives of this networking initiative include keeping you up to date on RRTP program developments and disseminating information about our professional mediation training opportunities for Guard and Reserve personnel, veterans, families, civilian employers, and others.
It is our expectation that this vehicle will be utilized to further our collective wisdom about how the RRTP can serve your local and state community. It is also our hope that it will encourage cross-state information exchange on ideas, resources, and best practices, and help educate communities about the benefits of using community mediation.
If you are interested in sharing information via this Listserv, simply use the following email address: nafcm-rrtp@lists.riseup.net. If you wish to be removed from this list at any time, please contact me, Jared Ordway (RRTP Program Manager) at jordway@nafcm.org.
All of us at NAFCM and the RRTP Team would like to send a warm and formal welcome to those of you who are new to the listserv and a warm and formal thank you for those who continue to be involved, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration.
Best regards,
Jared Ordway
RRTP Program Manager
National Association for Community Mediation
Ola Czerska
RRTP Program Assistant
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Updates - April 2008:
This announcement is a very exciting one from NAFCM’s Reservist Reintegration and Transitions Program (RRTP). We are pleased to announce that we have recently finished conducting the first round of our military mediation training with great success and warm response!!!
The basic mediation course was held in collaboration with the Cleveland Mediation Center (www.clevelandmediation.org) Cleveland, Ohio, from March 27th - 29th, and the advanced portion was held on April 11th and 12th at the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, with the collaboration of the Center for Community Dispute Settlement, Inc.
The RRTP curricula trained approximately 30 participants in basic and advanced mediation skills under the Transformative approach, focusing on conflicts related to military-civilian reintegration and transition. The participants came from all walks, including members of the National Guard, Active military and Coast Guard, military-family members, Vet Center staff members, civilian contractors, local community leaders, and mediators.
NAFCM would like to extend a sincere thank you to all who made this first round of training possible, including a special thanks to Dan Joyce and Ed Boyte of the Cleveland Mediation Center, and to Patti Farris at UCF, and Wayne Smith of the Center for Community Dispute Settlement, Inc. in Orlando.
And of course, we would like to salute all our wonderful trainees for their dedication, contributions and commitment not only to learn more about working with military personnel and families in conflict, but for taking the message and their skills beyond the classroom to help the program grow. Thank you again!
Comments from Participant Evaluations:
“Absolutely informative and insightful! The process was very beneficial and relative to [military] life occurrences that will be present in mediation”
“Important topic (community to be served), informative, challenging”
“Educational, informative and satisfactory... Instructors were excellently prepared… time flew by and lots of knowledge was gained, both new and enhanced.”
“I would love another training session because of the vastness of information. I’m ready to go get it!”
Upcoming Opportunities
The second round of free mediation training, both basic and advanced, is fast approaching! NAFCM will be holding back-to-back basic and advanced trainings during the first week of June at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.* This training coincides with the Minority Professionals in ADR Conference, also held at Capital University Law School.
Schedule:
June 2, 3 & 4 – RRTP Basic Mediation Training
June 5 & 6 – RRTP Advanced Mediation Training
*The official training announcement and application instructions will be released by May 1, 2008.
Interested in learning more?
Please contact Jared Ordway at (202) 545-8866, or email the RRTP Program Manager – jordway@nafcm.org.
For Donors
If you or someone you know (individual or foundation) is interested in learning more about supporting healthy transitions of military personnel, their families, civilian employers, and communities, please contact Irvin Foster, NAFCM Executive Director, at (202) 545-8866 or via email at ifoster@nafcm.org.
Updates from March 2008:
Last week NAFCM met with many community mediation representatives from across the state of Massachusetts who are currently and actively providing individual and family services for veterans in transition. We are looking forward to collaborating with them as we move into the coming months.
On February 29th NAFCM will be in Cleveland laying out some of the plans for the first mediation training and presenting and holding an information booth the next day at Cuyahoga Community College’s Winter Resource Carnival for Military Families in Transition.
We will be providing the first targeted conflict resolution skills training for members of the National Guard, the Reserves and Military families in transition on March 27, 28, and 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information on this training please contact me, Jared Ordway at jordway@nafcm.org or by phone at 202-545-8866.
Please do not hesitate to send information on upcoming conferences, questions, discussion points, or anything that you feel is relevant to this listserv.
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LISTSERV POSTING INSTRUCTIONS:
Since this Listserv was created to as a forum for exchange and discussion, please do not hesitate to send information you feel is relevant for the purpose of serving our community by connecting people, ideas, and events. (Information may include upcoming conference notifications, questions, discussions, etc.)
Sending: If you are interested in sharing information via this Listserv, simply send the information to the following email address: nafcm-rrtp@lists.riseup.net
Removal: If you wish to be removed from this list at any time, please contact Jared Ordway (RRTP Program Manager) at jordway@nafcm.org
For more information about RRTP and NAFCM click on the following link to NAFCM’s website:
NAFCM: www.nafcm.org
RRTP: http://www.nafcm.org/pg72.cfm
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The Reservist Reintegration and Transitions Program
Program Summary
The National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) is pleased to announce the Reservist Reintegration and Transitions Program (RRTP). The RRTP is a national direct-connect support program which provides conflict resolution solutions for families and service members of the Reserves and National Guard during the deployment cycle. NAFCM is currently piloting the program in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Vermont and Virginia.
Working together with State and local partners including family assistance programs, veteran service groups, community mediation centers, health professionals, and other supporting agencies, the program supports the re-establishment of healthy communication and decision-making processes for military-service members and their families during these difficult times.
With the supporting goals of informing individuals and organizations about these services, building local capacity through mediation training, and complementing existing reintegration services by building a referral network, communities can move forward constructively through their deployment transitions.
Although military families often receive advice on the importance of using healthy communication to resolve transition-related issues, it is NAFCM’s experience that for this particular group, little has been done to teach them how. The RRTP fills this gap by supporting communities in the following ways:
1) Providing free and professional-level skills training for members of the National Guard and Reserves, Veterans, families, supporting professionals, and other community members, to promote effective decision-making and family-focused solutions during transition;
2) Creating a referral and resource-sharing network to complement existing family-assistance and veteran service agencies with the tools and information necessary to guide families to and through the mediation process;
3) Further developing a specialized curriculum on military- civilian transition issues to build community capacity for
mediating family and workplace cases; and,
4) Enhancing local protocols to meet unique community
needs, as well as expanding the reach of civilian-
military mediation programs into communities
nationwide.
Sign Me Up!
Whether your experience or interest may serve or be served by taking a training in mediation, creating a link between NAFCM and your community or organization, or simply learning more about this program, please don't wait; there are a variety of ways in which you or someone you know can become involved - and they might be closer to home than you think!
If you are a military service or family member, Veteran, or other professional interested in supporting healthy transitions in your community, please contact NAFCM's Executive Director, Mr. Irvin Foster, or the RRTP Program Manager, Jared Ordway, today by phone at (202) 545-8866, or by email at jordway@nafcm.org.
