Peaceful Schools Initiative

Creating a culture of peaceful conflict resolution within your school community

CMC has worked collaboratively with the Bozeman School District on this initiative since 1997.

We believe the accomplishments of successful and sustainable initiatives are to:

  • Unite the school community in a long-term vision and commitment.
  • Cultivate
    • respect for self and others
    • a sense of belonging
    • a sense of being listened to
    • a safe place to discuss concerns.
  • Mirror a common expectation among principals, teachers, staff members, students and parents that conflict can be resolved peacefully, creatively and constructively.
  • Teach conflict resolution skills to teachers and students.
  • Give students the opportunity to use their skills.
  • Entrust students with responsibility of helping themselves and others.
  • Link multiple resources in the community.

We believe empowering youth with these skills sustains safe, healthy communities. CMC can help you create a culture of peaceful conflict resolution within your school community.

CMC's Three Levels of Service

Level A
Consultation

In order to establish a broad base of support, we work with you to:

  • Assist you to craft your vision and goals
  • Help you to identify your community's stakeholders
  • Disseminate information, statistics, research
  • Assist you to organize and facilitate community dialogues
  • Present to school boards, school administrators, faculty and/or parents
  • Assist you to identify local resources
  • Plan strategic goals with you that are tailored to your school's philosophy and mission
  • Send one staff member to Basic Mediation Training
  • Assist you with staff conflict resolution training

Level B
Peer Mediation

After laying the initial groundwork, a school community is then poised to implement a successful peer mediation program. Peer mediation empowers students to resolve conflicts on their own with the help of their peers. It defuses tensions before they escalate to violence.

We work with you to:

  • Incorporate peer mediation into the school's discipline system
  • Develop program calendar, forms and evaluation tools
  • Plan program presentations to parents, faculty and students
  • Offer a 12-15 hour peer mediation training for selected students (2 CMC trainers)
  • Provide follow-up training sessions for peer mediator
  • Purchase Conflict Resolution Unlimited Peer Mediation Materials for the school

Level C
Conflict Resolution Training

Only a limited number of students can be accepted into the Peer Mediation program. This training gives necessary skills to students who were not accepted into the program but would like to develop the life skills to confront conflict.

We work with you to:

  • Offer a six hour workshop in conflict resolution to students.
  • Offer a six hour workshop to parents of middle school children on the use of conflict resolution skills in their familise.
  • Offer workshops to faculty and staff on conflict resolution and how to refer students to Peer Mediation
  • Provide follow-up training sessions for peer mediators on a limited basis

 

 

Training Session

Want to support
this program?
Find out how!

 

"It is really easy for me to get into fights. The smallest things really get to me. Without mediation I would probably be a really unhappy person. Me and the other people came out of the mediation being good friends, and after that we know what to do if we get into a dispute again."

— Peer Mediation Participant

"One middle school experienced a 67% reduction in overall discipline infractions since implementing a comprehensive peaceful school initiative."

— Connie Campbell