Advance Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC): Community Conflict Mediation Training
This advanced training program is for certified DPC facilitators who have completed the Dialogue for Peaceful Change mediation program.
Have you ever been to a thanksgiving dinner or family wedding and conflict erupts just as the bread rounds the table?
This advanced training program is for people who are interested in deepening their skills to practice “meditative behavior” and "communication" as it relates to your family and work. We’ll also explore using the DPC skills in workplace and group contexts where conflict is experienced by a variety of people at different times and in different contexts.
Imagine a big community or workplace gathering, what happens when conflict erupts around us and within us? How do you apply DPC methodologies to support transformative change? We’ll be offering up a DPC community development approach for you to consider and practice. This will be a great chance to enhance and refresh your DPC skills. It will be a chance to also gather with other folks from the DPC family. Don’t worry if you aren’t doing formal DPC mediation, this program isn’t about formal mediation, it’s about using DPC in the contexts in which you live.
Program Goal:
To enhance the skill level of DPC Facilitators to become effective mediative communicators.
Objectives:
- To explore and practice methods for dealing with the underside of the iceberg
- To explore mediative behaviour in larger group settings
- To explore a process of “mediating yourself”
- To answer outstanding questions and concerns about DPC
- To explore your hot buttons as they relate to conflict
Maximum number of participants = 12
Leadership
Stephen Law
Stephen Law is an internationally certified mediation coach in Dialogue for Peaceful Change. He has offered trainings in Northern Ireland, India and North America. Stephen has mediated conflicts in community-based organizations, family structures and cooperative social enterprises and offered programming which builds bridges between groups, communities and organizations. Stephen was the past chair of Peace Brigades International and has trained international accompaniers in conflict areas around the world.
Stephen was the Social Transformation Program Coordinator with the Tatamagouche Centre and an Associate of the Coady International Institute where he taught the Community-Based Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding course at St. Francis Xavier University. He designed and delivered the Gender Inclusive Leadership Certificate for the YWCA Shift Change program training male supervisors in the trades and created the Welcoming Ambassador Program to support the integration and inclusion of newcomers to Nova Scotia for the Immigrant Settlement Association of Nova Scotia. He is also the author of two novels, Tailings of Warren Peace (Roseway, 2013) and Under Her Skin (Roseway, 2017).
Ishbel Munro
Ishbel Munro has been a social justice activist and community builder for over 50 years. She is an internationally certified mediation coach in Dialogue for Peaceful Change. She has been offering training since 2010. She was also trained in mediation at Henson College, Dalhousie University. Ishbel has mediated conflicts within non-profits, in Indigenous communities, with families and co-operatives. She has also mentored new mediators for many years. Ishbel likes the opportunity that mediation provides for personal reflection and transformation. She is currently Coordinator of Apaji-wla’matulinej and Women of First Light, which are Indigenous women lead organization from Wabanaki homelands. They work to heal Indigenous communities through bringing back traditional ways of being including Clan Mothers, the relationship to the land and Creator, the languages and providing support and mentoring. Much of her work prior to this has been building bridges between peoples. Through Coastal Communities Network she developed projects like On Common Ground which brought together the African Nova Scotian, Mi’Kmaq, Acadian and fishing communities to learn about each other’s culture, heritage, and histories. This process avoided violence that we saw between First Nations and non-native fishermen in New Brunswick.
Program Cost
We acknowledge that there are systemic barriers that make it difficult to participate and access programs. We work to support those who are unable to pay the full cost of programs, while providing a living wage for facilitators and covering the costs of learning programs.
We name the true program fee to allow those who are able to pay this cost to do so. We don’t want financial barriers to prevent anyone from participating in a learning program so we also offer bursaries for registrants to choose but we only have limited funds to support attendees so please use only what you need. Financial support is reserved for individuals who are not sponsored by an organization.
*** Please note: We are sorry to inform you that at this time we are unable to offer bursaries. As soon as they become available we will be adding promo codes. ***
Tatamagouche Centre is grateful to live in Mi'kma'ki and work on the ancestral and unceeded territory of the Mi'kmaw people.