Violence is the leading killer of African-American youth in Baltimore City, and the city’s violent crime rate is almost four times the national number, but the staff and volunteers of Community Mediation Program remain committed to fostering community peace one conflict resolution at a time.
“We are a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create peaceful neighborhoods throughout Baltimore City,” said CMP Executive Director Tracee Ford. “We do that by offering free mediation throughout the city and conflict resolution training to interested parties.”
Ford, who has been with the 12-year-old nonprofit for several years but director for only two months, said that, through the volunteer efforts of its 75 trained mediators, the 20-employee, $700,000-a-year group referees about 300 conflicts a year at 120 sites provided by partnering organizations.
Central to the CMP technique, Ford said, is brainstorming and the “strategic listening skills” of mediators that “pull out feelings, values and the concrete things that [participants] want to make a plan about.”
“When we let folks come up with their own ideas about how they want to resolve their conflict, we have an 82 percent follow-through success rate. This is [in contrast to] the 50 percent [rate] of people doing what the courts told them to do.”
Conflicted parties find their way to CMP either through the criminal justice system -– CMP has two staff liaisons with the Baltimore City Police Department -– or through neighborhood, church or other referrals, under-the-radar quarters that CMP strives to better serve.
There are 15 similar programs throughout the state of Maryland.
“They’re not only a fantastic center that serves Baltimore City,” said Rachel Wohl, executive director of the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office, a state CMP funder, “but really a national model for grassroots community mediation.”
CMP sessions are generally two hours long, and clients can request as many sessions as they need. The nonprofit also offers a short course in conflict resolution, special mediations for separated parents and reentry sessions for soon-to-be released criminal offenders.
It is partially publicly funded but also relies on fundraisers like the one set for Oct. 23 at DLA Piper law offices in Mount Washington.
“Having individual donors gives us the flexibility to go where we’re most needed,” Ford said.
“I think they’re one of the great groups in the city –- and an unsung hero,” said Ralph Moore, director of the St. Frances Academy Community Center, which donates site space.
AT A GLANCE
Community Mediation Program
3333 Greenmount Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-467-9165/communitymediation.org
