Conflict Management Coaching’s Place in Community Mediation: A Value Added Service

Abstract

This article discusses a pilot project that enabled a community mediation centre to also offer conflict management coaching services when it was not possible to bring both parties into mediation or when one of the parties was seeking a better way to address a dispute. The authors, experienced professional mediators and credentialed coaches, explain in detail how they developed and delivered a training programme in coaching skills for a group of the centre’s volunteer mediators. The programme consisted of 16 hours of in-person training followed by virtual role-plays and mentoring together with quarterly in-person refresher trainings. Surveys of mediators who received the training and clients who received the coaching services showed that the project was highly successful, which the authors also attributed to the commitment of the centre’s leadership, staff and volunteers.