Irvine, Calif. – The nonprofit JAMS Foundation announced that it approved $344,700 in new grants to organizations utilizing innovative ways to promote and advance conflict prevention and dispute resolution. The money will be distributed by the foundation in the form of six Foundation Grants, which provide financial support up to $50,000 for ADR-programs or initiatives, and seven Opportunity Grants, which award up to $10,000 for smaller scale and more localized projects.
“The JAMS Foundation is proud to support these organizations that are contributing in a positive way to the prevention and resolution of conflicts,” said Jay Folberg, executive director of the Foundation. “Each grant recipient holds great promise of making a unique and important difference in how dispute resolution is taught or applied.”
The JAMS Foundation will provide Foundation Grants to the following initiatives:
American Board of Trial Advocates (Dallas, TX) – Civility Project - $50,000 to support the national expansion of a program addressing incivility in the legal profession by providing law students and young lawyers with vivid examples of uncivil behavior and highlighting the need for more constructive approaches to resolving disputes. www.abota.org
Cardozo School of Law (New York, NY) – Symposium/Journal on Environmental Dispute Resolution - $19,700 to help fund a symposium on environmental conflict resolution and publication of a resulting issue of the Cardozo Journal of Dispute Resolution devoted to the subject. www.cardozo.yu.edu
CRU Institute (Bellevue, WA) – Anti-Bullying DVD and Teaching Guide - $50,000 to fund the creation and distribution of a documentary-style DVD and leader’s guide targeting issues of bullying, harassment and intolerance and presenting a variety of constructive approaches to resolving the conflicts arising from them. www.cruinstitute.org
Hamline University School of Law (St. Paul, MN) – “Second Generation” Global Negotiation Education Project - $95,000 over three years to support a series of international conferences on negotiation, providing members of the international business, legal, and academic communities with state-of-the-art training in the theory and practice of cross-cultural and trans-national negotiation. This grant funds the publication of three years of post-conference writings, including contributions from leading scholars and practitioners around the world. Year 1 of the conference will be held in Rome, Year 2 in Istanbul and Year 3 in Beijing. www.law.hamline.edu/disputeresolution
National Association for Community Mediation (Mesa, AZ) – Educational and Training Materials for Community Mediation – $50,000 to fund the revision and national distribution of several core community mediation publications as well as a series of nationally-broadcast webinars on important topics of interest to community mediation center leaders and participants. www.nafcm.org
Walnut Street Theatre (Philadelphia, PA) – Conflict Resolution Theater - $20,000 over two years to fund a series of theatrical performances providing lessons in conflict resolution and dealing with school violence to underserved elementary and middle school students. www.walnutstreettheatre.org
The JAMS Foundation has also awarded Opportunity Grants for these seven initiatives:
Echo Center (formerly Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting (Los Angeles, CA) – Mediation Program for Families and Caregivers - $10,000 to support the implementation of a pilot mediation program for families and caregivers, promoting mediation as a vital component of the organization’s existing family support services. www.theechocenter.org
Elna B. Spaulding Conflict Resolution Center (Durham, NC) – Prisoner Re-Entry Mediation Program – Building on the success of a related JAMS Foundation-funded program in Maryland, this $10,000 grant funds a pilot re-entry program for incarcerated persons preparing for release from North Carolina prisons, providing mediation services to inmates, family and community members in order to facilitate inmates’ successful reintegration into their communities. www.wia-durhammediation.org
Pepperdine University School of Law (Malibu, CA) – ADR Teaching Symposium - $10,000 to help fund a two-day international symposium for law professors and ADR instructors, reviewing current best practices for teaching a variety of ADR courses – including specialized courses on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration - and seeking to bridge the divide between the ADR classroom and professional practice. www.law.pepperdine.edu
Rational Games (Cambridge, MA) – Cool School Video Game Project – $10,000 to fund a pilot testing program for Cool School, an interactive video game designed to teach conflict resolution concepts and skills to young children age 5-8, part of a more expansive plan to promote and distribute the game nationally. www.rationalgames.org
Recourse Mediation Services (Santa Rosa, CA) – Recruitment/Training of Spanish-Speaking Mediators and Outreach to Latino Communities - $10,000 to support the recruitment and training of Spanish-speaking mediators and development of bi-lingual educational materials to serve the region’s Latino community. www.recoursemediation.com
SEEDS Community Resolution Center (Berkeley, CA) – Peaceful Communities Project - $10,000 to help launch a community-wide initiative to prevent and address conflict in underserved neighborhoods through a series of conflict resolution training workshops involving neighborhood residents, school administrators, university partners, parents, police, and youth service agencies. www.seedscrc.org
About the JAMS Foundation (
www.jamsfoundation.org)
The nonprofit JAMS Foundation is the largest private provider of ADR-related grants in the world. The Foundation was established in 2002 by JAMS, The Resolution Experts, the nation’s premier provider of alternative dispute resolution services, and is funded by JAMS mediators, arbitrators and employee associates who contribute a percentage of their income. The JAMS Foundation has provided more than $3.3 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its more than 250 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s important cases. JAMS is online at
www.jamsadr.com.