Volunteer group helps residents resolve conflicts and disputes



Lincoln County residents who need help resolving a conflict or dispute with another party can find assistance with volunteer mediators from Lincoln Community Dispute Resolution.

The organization’s executive director, Jim Reim, and board chair, Mindy Baxter, appeared at the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4, as the commissioners proclaimed November as “Mediation Month” in Lincoln County.

“Basically everything we do in some way helps people address conflict. In their lives, in a meeting, neighbor to neighbor,” Baxter said. “We believe they can address conflict constructively and come out with a win-win.”

Dispute resolution volunteers provide mediation in several areas, including disputes in housing, workplace, youth, businesses and government, she said.

Reim spoke about their current focus on group meeting facilitation.

“It came up for me when we did some work for a nonprofit organization that was really in conflict. It was definitely a competitive win-lose kind of situation,” he said. “And it looked like that’s the way their meetings operated. There’s an alternative, and we could help people having meetings come up with an approach where they would collaborate and not compete.”

Lincoln Community Dispute Resolution was involved in 94 cases between July 2008 to June 2009.

Many times mediators are able to help people informally over the phone.

“I believe one of the nicest things we do is to simply help people find a track without going through formal mediation,” Reim said.

When formal mediation is needed for a situation, most are completed within one session, which is limited to two hours.

The program is almost entirely funded through a grant from the Oregon Office of Community Dispute Resolution and donations.

“We’ve had ups and downs, and right now we’re in a real low period because of budget cuts and lack of funding. We’ve had to constrain our program as far as services we can offer,” Baxter said.

There is no charge for mediation services through Lincoln Community Dispute Resolution, but they do have a recommended $20 donation.

For information on mediation services or volunteer opportunities, call 574-9846 to leave a message. Messages are checked daily.



Monique Cohen is a reporter with the News-Times. Contact her at 265-8571 ext. 217 or mcohen@newportnewstimes.com.



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