We promoted our services at the TAG Access to Justice Week on October 20-21, 2016.
Our team hosted a public mobile Family Law Information Centre at Toronto City Hall November 21-22, 2016.
We are now providing onsite family mediation for the North York Court of Justice at 47 Sheppard. Parties in court for a motion, conference or trial can have 2 hours of free mediation, along with 2 hours of free intake meetings and 6 hours of subsidized mediation. We thank the bench, staff and our family law colleagues at 47 Sheppard for the great support.
IRCs Rita and Samy Czarny are teaching us all about the new law protecting the rights of grandparents in custody battles. Come out to the ADR Institute of Ontario on Mar. 7 and hear them!
E. D. Elizabeth Hyde and mediator Nicole Stewart Kamanga again co-chaired FDRweek’s Access to Justice Forum Nov. 24 2016 at the Law Society. Members of front-line community organizations working hard to promote access to justice in family law spoke passionately about the challenges facing the less privileged and the things we can all do to make a difference.
Mediator Caroline Felstiner spoke about domestic violence in FDR at Peel Family Mediation Services’ 5th Annual Domestic Violence Symposium, November 18, 2016.
Congratulations to roster mediators Shely Polak and Seema Jain, directors of the AFCC-O!
CLEO’s new Steps to Justice website is up! A great resource for anyone going through a separation or divorce.
We are growing and need more mediators and information referral coordinators. The greatest need we have is for FDR professionals who speak the languages and know the cultures of our diverse clientele. Please contact us if you are qualified.
Don’t forget that LAO funds 6 hours of mediation support for our unrepresented clients who meet the income thresholds. We are finding that many of our eligible clients are unable to find a lawyer to take this certificate. We need good family lawyers to help our clients get advice and help us support better access to family justice. Please let us know if you will take these cases!
Justice Canada has produced a new video to help families going through divorce or separation. The transcript and accessible version of this video are available on the Department of Justice Canada’s website.
Our stats continue to show that we have an 86% satisfaction rate. Our settlement rates are increasing as our mediators gain more experience identifying cases not appropriate for mediation.
mediate393’s Executive Director Elizabeth Hyde, a Toronto family mediator, arbitrator, parenting coordinator and trainer, says that teaching mediation in other countries has given her renewed perspective as an FDR professional.
Working with teams of co-trainers-- including mediate393 roster members Caroline Felstiner, Regina Thompson, Joel Skapinker, Mina Vaish, Akbar Ebrahim, Jared Norton, Michelle Walton and Nicole Stewart-Kamanga -- Elizabeth and Hilary Linton led week long sessions for community leaders in Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Guyana in 2016. The training was part of IMPACT Justice, a Canadian government funded project designed to enhance access to justice throughout the CARICOM countries. The training was designed and delivered by Toronto’s Riverdale Mediation and included sessions in St. Lucia and Belize.
Each session brought police officers, child protection workers, social workers, probation officers and other community leaders together to share their experiences while learning dispute resolution techniques. Goals of the project include enhancing capacity to have disputes resolved out of court to reduce pressures on over-worked court systems and increasing awareness of gender-based power imbalances in conflict resolution. The teams structured the training to be relevant to each group’s specific environment, which proved to be both challenging and inspirational.
Elizabeth says that the kinds of conflict the course participants dealt with included everything from managing neighbour disputes over property lines to working with the impacts of domestic violence, child abuse, youth unemployment and violent crime--- all with very limited public resources.
“You hear these stories that feel so far away, but when you are working hands-on with these difficult situations, it’s a real eye opener that helps you quickly put priorities in place”.
While her team was in Dominica, a hurricane hit and all of the police officers in her class left to help get people to safety. These unique conditions and experiences reminded Elizabeth how valuable it is for all disciplines of dispute resolution to share with and learn from one another. Every session brought different professionals together to share their skills and experiences providing a wealth of information from which everyone benefitted. Above all, Elizabeth says these experiences reminded her of how lucky we are be a part of such an energizing helping profession.
Notably, all of the trainers were family mediators. “It was fascinating to see how well the theory and skills of family dispute resolution transferred to civil and community mediation”, says Elizabeth. The training is also approved by the ADR Institute of Ontario for C. Med. certification. There was considerable local press at each training.
IMPACT Justice (Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean) is a 5-year project funded by the Canadian government. It is being implemented by the University of West Indies Cave Hill campus in 13 CARICOM member states. The goal of the project is enhanced access to justice benefitting men, women, youth and business.
mediate393 is relentlessly seeking to educate organizations and the public about free family information and mediation services, family court procedures, and FDR options. For organizations and agencies interested in learning more, we will, at no cost, visit your location to provide an informative presentation.
We can also make arrangements to speak at an organization's social/networking event. For more information, please email us at info@mediate393.ca
Pamela graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Social Work (2000)and then graduated from the advanced Master’s degree in Social Work program with honors at Wurzweiler School of Social Work (2001). Pamela lived in New York City for 5 years where she honed her skills working on an inpatient unit at Coler-Goldwater Hospital, a mental health clinic in Harlem (Union Settlement Clinic) and at DOROT (social service organization) which specializes in senior citizens. She returned to Toronto in 2004 with experience, knowledge and confidence and has spent the last 10 years as the primary social worker in the diabetes outpatient clinic at North York General Hospital. In addition, Pamela has a private practice with a focus on adolescent anxiety, couples counselling and individuals in marital distress. Pam has been called on to provide expertise in anger management for individuals within the criminal court system. Most recently Pamela completed the Family Mediation courses at Riverdale Mediation Centre and is currently in the internship phase of the process.
Many of our mediators/IRC speak different languages. We will assign the best mediator for your case. For a list of our mediators, please visit our About Us page.
A new document detailing family law resources and related organizations in Ontario is available now on our website!
For easier use by both professionals and the greater public, the extensive document is broken down into categories:
“top 20” (a diverse collection of multiservice organizations)
phone line services (including many 24/7 help and crisis lines)
addiction
employment services
family services
LGBTTQ+ services
men’s services
mental health
sexual and physical health
shelters and housing
women’s services
youth services
culturally specific/multicultural resources.
The link to the document can be on the homepage of the mediate393 website. You can also access it here – please, use and forward it widely! It is organized in alphabetical order, and is also searchable, making it simpler to find what you or your client is looking for. An introductory paragraph on page 2 explains that although mediate393 inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in the doc, we do welcome suggestions for improvement, as well as information about additional resources to help grow our database. We are especially hoping to add more resources for men who are experiencing intimate partner violence, and a greater variety of culturally specific and/or multicultural resources.
Additionally, although inclusion of an organization does not equate an endorsement, we are always looking to make new connections! If you would like a speaker from mediate393 to come speak to your organization, or to come tell us more about the work that you do, please reach out to us at info@mediate393.ca. We would love to hear from you!
