- T.L. Petersen
- The Observer
Imagine television without conflict between individuals, groups or organizations.
There would be nothing to watch.
Even the news, much of the time, is about people or groups in conflict.
But if resolution is the desired goal, help is available.
Trained voluntary mediators men and women who work with those in conflict can help find a solution that settles a disagreement.
All that is required is those involved in the conflict be willing to work on moving from their positions in opposition to a place where everyone can walk away and feel that the problem is settle.
Not necessarily won or lost, but resolved in a satisfactory manner.
In Union County, volunteers with the Eastern Oregon Mediation Center have the training, willingness and persistence to help those in conflict find a way to move beyond the problem.
And for the first time since the mediation center was formed in the late 1990s, there is now a part-time paid director to help plan, organize and reach out to the public and say: We're here and we can help.
Teala Sunderman, a 1996 graduate of La Grande High School, has returned to Union County and hopes her skills can make the mediation center a place of first resort for help, not a last-ditch effort.
Sunderman earned college degrees in sociology and public health at Oregon State University in 2000, then worked for four years with a Portland law firm as a paralegal.
"I worked with four attorneys, and we did a lot of mediation work."
Sunderman felt mediation was a great option for feuding legal clients.
When Sunderman and her husband, Brad, came back to Union County, the mediation center job was being advertised.
"This job came up," she explains, and it was the right fit, giving her a chance to use her skills and be a mom at the same time.
She tracks all calls that come into the mediation center's phone and makes sure there are mediators available when requested. She's also working on getting the word out to agencies, departments and the public about the mediation center's services.
Mediators working with the Eastern Oregon Mediation Center, Sunderman explains, are trained and professional.
Everyone starts with 30 hours of professional mediation training, and there's generally annual on-going training. Specialized training for certain types of mediation is also available.
Mediation is the $100 word for people who can get two or more people in conflict to sit down, hear each other out, and guide them to making progress to reach their own solutions.
Mediation can cover lots of ground.
Some mediators work with victims and offenders, small claims situations, interpersonal disputes between two people. Other mediators help facilitate improved communications between work groups and supervisors or between employees. Still other mediators work to settle neighborhood disputes everything from neighbors unhappy about barking dogs to landlord-tenant disagreements.
But Sunderman and retired district court judge and mediator Eric Valentine both stress a key element about mediation.
"Mediation is voluntary. Both parties have to be willing," Sunderman says.
In Union County, however, nearly all small claims cases filed with the county court system head for mediation first.
"It's better for people to mediate," Valentine says.
In addition to keeping court calendars from becoming clogged, mediation is also a great way for people in small claims actions to get a decent result without anyone having to end up with a legal record.
"A successful mediation is emotionally and financially a relief for everyone," Valentine says.
Back in 1998, Valentine and District Court Administrator John DeNault arranged for a 40-hour mediation training center for volunteers from Wallowa, Baker and Union counties. After a year, another training was organized, to teach community dispute resolution and workplace resolution.
Then in late 2001, the formal procedures happened to create the Eastern Oregon Mediation Center as a non-profit corporation.
Since the beginning of the center, many of the volunteer mediators have stayed with the program, helping small claims cases get resolved, working with individuals, and adding to their skills with further training. Eric and Meg Valentine, busy with many retirement activities, continue to stay deeply involved as mediators themselves.
Currently, there are about 14 or 15 active voluntary mediators, Sunderman says.
While it isn't uncommon for the parties involved in mediation to recognize the mediator, that's not designed to be a factor.
Mediation, Sunderman says, is a confidential process.
To start a mediation process, she explains, "people can call the center directly, officials can refer people to us, or agencies can call us. We prefer you don't wait to call us. Call at any point in the process."
If an agreement is reached with the assistance of a mediator, such as in a small claims case, there's no record kept.
It keeps people feeling that mediation isn't going to hurt anyone, Sunderman says. If someone believes they've been hurt, it feels as if someone has "lost." And that isn't the point.
During mediation, the process is getting points out on the floor for consideration, Sunderman says. It's non-threatening. The goal is to come to an agreement both parties can live with.
Sunderman doesn't think people settle more or less often in Portland than they do in Union County. What does happen, she says, is that people who use the mediation process have a "more positive attitude."
And that's the mediation center's reason to exist.
And people are trying mediation. According to the call log, mediators have been involved in property disputes, a neighborhood dispute, a dispute involving a student and an instructor and even a matter of some fish that went bad.
Having a disagreement with someone? Keep the Eastern Oregon Mediation Center number handy. Just call 786-0270 anytime and leave a message.
