Elizabeth Chen, alternative conflict resolution support, Jamaica
A CUSO-VSO volunteer worked with Jamaica’s Dispute Resolution Foundation to help foster peace and reduce violence in the Caribbean nation.
If all you’ve ever known since birth is that conflict and violence are a part of life, it’s hard to even imagine you could live in peace and with justice. That’s the uphill struggle faced by the Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF), a CUSO-VSO partner group celebrating its 15th year of reducing conflict and violence in Jamaica through peaceful alternatives such as mediation.
“DRF was founded by a group of lawyers, judges and other concerned people who said, ‘There’s got to be a better way! Too many conflicts are escalating to court, and people become so hurt and angry that it’s not good for them or for our entire society,’” explains Elizabeth Chen, a CUSO-VSO overseas volunteer who worked with DRF for 15 months.
After studying similar systems in countries like Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., DRF brought the concept of mediation to Jamaica, where two parties in conflict are brought together with a neutral third party – the mediator – in a highly structured process.
“The mediator works to help them find common ground, to achieve a solution where both parties win, as opposed to the court system, in which one loses and even the winner often doesn’t feel like they’ve won,” explains Elizabeth. DRF successfully lobbied for changes to legislation that mandated all Supreme Court civil cases must be mediated and only tried in court if the mediation is unsuccessful.
Giving young people alternative resolutions
But even with their successes, the leaders of DRF felt they needed to be even more proactive in building a peaceful society. So they created a youth program in Jamaican schools, teaching children from ages 10-18 how to identify conflict, why it happens, how to help themselves resolve conflicts, and how to prevent conflict with others.
“DRF also trains Youth Peace Facilitators, usually in their 20s, who have come from the inner cities where a lot of conflict happens. They can speak to the kids in their own language, because they’ve been there,” says Elizabeth. “One of our more successful facilitators, Leon, is a former gang member who can give them true life examples that really hit home to them. He shares his past struggles and mistakes, and gives them alternative resolutions to consider. They all admire and respect him.”
Three years ago, DRF established a pilot project for students who have been suspended from school, funded by UNICEF. “Often there are 50 students to one teacher in a class and nobody’s getting a quality education. The kids aren’t being engaged, they get frustrated and start to fight with each other and the teacher,” explains Elizabeth.
“Principals don’t know what to do, except suspend them for three to five days. But the kids started acting up on purpose to get a holiday at home.” So the organization proposed a pilot school suspension program, where students would be sent to one of DRF’s Peace and Justice Centres in five of the more “at risk” areas of Jamaica.
“They discuss why they were suspended, their responsibility for how they interact with other people and how they could have done better. They’re taught about conflict resolution as well as anger management,” she says. “By the end of their suspension, they have to write a minimum of three letters of apology, to the teacher and principal and others involved in the conflict. Those letters have to include a plan for how they will avoid conflict in the future.”
Program success
Of the 200 students who went through the first year of the suspension program, only one was suspended again. Fuelled by the success of this innovative program, DRF is seeking funding from the Ministry of Education to expand it across the country. Elizabeth’s main contribution to DRF, along with Anne-Marie D’Araujo, another CUSO-VSO volunteer, was to transfer the collection of data on cases from a manual paper system to a computer-based one.
“The software enables them to provide better information to the courts on adult mediation outcomes and to funders on how children are being helped,” she says. “Our systems opened their eyes to how they can improve their process and have a larger scope of clients.”
Elizabeth also helped DRF mark its milestone anniversary with awareness-raising media coverage including a 22-minute video funded by CUSO-VSO. The video is designed to raise DRF’s profile and take the message of alternative mediation to a wider segment of Jamaican society. DRF’s Chief Executive Officer, Donna Parchment Brown, is grateful for the assistance and knowledge that the volunteers bring to the Jamaican staff of the growing non-profit organization.
“The DRF is so appreciative of CUSO-VSO and we’re overwhelmed by the value, not just of the material things like computers, but much more so the value of the volunteers,” she says. “Their skills and positive attitudes go a long way toward strengthening our organization. We have a vision of a peaceful society and we know what needs to be done. We just need help with how best to get there, and CUSO-VSO has been an answer to our prayers.”
