Irvine, Calif. – The nonprofit JAMS Foundation approved three new grants to organizations using innovative ways to promote and advance conflict prevention and dispute resolution. The Foundation will distribute the money in the form of one Foundation Grant, which provides financial support up to $50,000 for ADR initiatives with national impact, and two Opportunity Grants, which award up to $10,000 for smaller scale and more localized projects.
The JAMS Foundation is committed to supporting programs that work to increase access to ADR around the world. These initiatives develop and teach conflict resolution skills and we’re honored to sustain these exceptional endeavors.
- Jay Folberg, Executive Director of the JAMS Foundation
The JAMS Foundation will provide a Foundation Grant to the following initiative:
- Community Mediation Maryland – Prisoner Reentry Mediation Website – Building on the success of previous Foundation-funded efforts, $23,000 to create and maintain a website disseminating information and technical assistance for the development of prisoner reentry mediation programs nationally and internationally, and promoting mediation as a key component in reducing recidivism and facilitating inmates’ successful reintegration into their communities.
The JAMS Foundation will provide Opportunity Grants to the following programs:
- Hands of Peace – Mediation Training for Palestinian-Israeli-American Youth - $10,000 to help fund the establishment of a second Summer Program in San Diego (complementing a similar successful program in Chicago) providing mediation and leadership skills training to Israeli, Palestinian and American youth through a 17-day program of educational and social activities promoting tolerance and cross-cultural understanding. The grant will also help support ongoing Alumni Club programs in the U.S. and Middle East offering participants continuing opportunities to develop their communication and peace-building skills.
- Prison of Peace – Peacemaker Training Program (Year 2) - $10,000 to continue support for a unique program providing conflict resolution, mediation and leadership skills training to long-term inmates at one or more women’s prisons in California, offering a range of opportunities for inmates to participate in reducing violence and positively changing prison culture by becoming Peacemakers in their own lives, Mediators of conflict between others, and Trainers of other potential mediators and peacemakers.
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 largest private 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 nearly $4.7 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its more than 300 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s most important cases.