Connected Communities – Raising Funds to Tackle Community Conflict
Connected Communities – Raising Funds to Tackle Community Conflict
To mark the beginning of national walking month, supporters of London based community mediation charity Calm Mediation, walked 12 miles along the banks of the River Thames to raise funds and awareness about the harm and cost of community conflict in the Capital.
WRITTEN BY ED PROCTER
Calm Mediation is a charity that works across London and the South-East, for the public benefit, to empower communities to resolve their differences in peaceful ways. It works with individuals and groups who are involved in or likely to become involved in disputes and interpersonal conflict principally by way of mediation, conciliation, training, conflict coaching and management. Community mediation helps to resolve disputes that arise in neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, families, shared public spaces and the criminal justice system.
Community conflict is on the rise, services are in decline and those that survive, like Calm Mediation, must do so on a shoestring.
On 2 May, the Connected Communities Walk, made up of some 30 staff members, trustees, volunteers and supporting friends and family, meandered its way along the Thames path. Passing through Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark and looking across the river to Newham, Tower Hamlets and City of London; supporters joined the walk at various points. Landmarks such as the Thames Barrier, provided a poignant reminder of the value of investing in structures that are designed to prevent significant damage.
Calm Mediation pays a heartfelt thanks to the 100+ fundraisers and donors who have helped raise close to half of the £10,000 target so far.
Poorly managed and unresolved conflict causes untold harm to individuals, communities and tax payers who foot the bill for the subsequent fall out. In the worst cases it causes homelessness and poverty and puts children, young people and family stability at risk. It impacts on people’s mental health, wellbeing, economic productivity, educational attainment and erodes community cohesion.
A report on The Cost of Community Conflict published by Mediation Hertfordshire and funded by the Tudor Trust shows that community conflict is on the rise, services are in decline and those that survive, like Calm Mediation, must do so on a shoestring. The number of family mediation providers offering legal aid has also reduced dramatically in recent years, leaving Calm Mediation as one of few remaining services for low-income families across London. With legal aid rates frozen since 2005, it is becoming ever more challenging to subsidise the costs of running publicly funded family mediation services.
Calm Mediation pays a heartfelt thanks to the 100+ fundraisers and donors who have helped raise close to half of the £10,000 target so far. Thank you for your generous support.
The campaign runs until September 2024. Further donations can be made online.
Ed Procter is the CEO of Calm Mediation. Previously he was CEO of independent press regulator Impress and of sport specialist arbitration and mediation body Sport Resolutions. Before that he was Director of Legal Aid for the South-East of England and earlier in his career worked for the Sports Council, Probation Service and in the advertising industry.
