City of Bellevue Neighborhood Mediation Program
Posted on 21 April 2010
Last week I began a training program at City Hall in Bellevue, entitled the “Bellevue Neighborhood Mediation Program.” The program has been established as an Alternative Dispute Resolution technique, to assist Bellevue residents in the solving of disputes with their neighbors, or disputes within their neighborhoods.
The program consists of a 40 hour training program, with some advanced certification available upon completion of the basic course. Then, the City of Bellevue indoctrinates the newly certified mediators into a phone conciliation program prior to becoming actual mediators.
I have found the course to be very good, and am looking forward to assisting my fellow Bellevue residents resolve their neighborhood issues within our community. This work is performed on a volunteer basis, and is a very effective solution to the massive expense of a lawsuit, and the time delay of waiting to resolve the issue in court. Also, through the process of mediation, the relationhips between the opposing parties are usually preserved…which is not the usual result in the case of litigation. Currently their are approximately 20 mediators in my training class, with an equal mix of male and female students, and a wide degree of cultural diversification. The class is being taught by both Andrew Kidde and Cheryl Cohen, program directors for the Bellevue Neighborhood Mediation Program.
The City of Bellevue has an incredible new City Hall, that has been designed with some very professional and unique architecture, functional meeting and training rooms, and is conveniently located directly off of I-405 in Downtown Bellevue Central Business District.
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