By Charles Chang

It’s finally here!  After sifting through a lot of the peer mediation curriculum out there, and after editing and revising the curriculum, we are ready with our first edition of Peer Mediators: A Complete School Curriculum (Grades 6-8). It’s a comprehensive peer mediation start-up kit that will allow someone to start a peer mediation program in a middle school. Peer mediation has proven to be successful at reducing suspension rates, intervening during bullying, and stopping fights. It also teaches students to communicate more effectively during arguments and misunderstandings.

Our goal with this curriculum was to make it possible for every school in the country to have their own peer mediation program that trains students to resolve conflicts through peaceful means. Whether you work in a school or know someone who works in a school, please let others know about this wonderful resource that we are offering for free. This curriculum was generously funded by the JAMS Foundation (jamsadr.com). The production of this curriculum was a partnership between the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center (apadrc.org), the National Association for Community Mediation (nafcm.org) and Wendy Corbett, a peer mediation consultant out of Mesa, AZ.

Components of Peer Mediators: A Complete School Curriculum (Grades 6-8)

• Implementation Guide – This will teach you how to set up, run, and market the peer mediation program
• Student’s Workbook – Students must be trained in order to become peer mediators. This workbook is given out to each student during the peer mediators’ training.
• Trainer’s Manual – This will be used by the teacher or nonprofit staff to train the students. There are over 100 activities in the manual and you can custom your training based on what you want to emphasize.
• Instructional DVD – The scenes on the DVD will be useful for whomever is setting up the program as well as training the students. A couple of scenes can also be shown to the students during the peer mediation training.
• CD (If purchasing hard copy) – A CD is included with electronic versions of the three manuals.
• Website support – www.peermediators.org – From this website, you can request free copies of the manuals, download scenes on the DVD, and talk with other people setting up peer mediation programs across the country. We will also load additional material on this website to help you with your peer mediation program.
• Online conflict resolution/peer mediation class – we are offering an online 31 hour conflict resolution class as part of this curriculum. If you’ve never taken a conflict resolution/mediation class before, we encourage you to take this class. You will be better prepared to train your students if you have an understanding of conflict resolution theory and mediation skills.

We are offering a free electronic version of the peer mediation curriculum to anyone that is interested. All you have to do is go to the website: www.peermediators.org and register on the site. Then you can request that the curriculum be emailed to you.

For the first online class which will start the week after Thanksgiving, we are holding a beta testing class to get feedback on the class. So the class will be offered for free for individuals who qualify. If you’re interested, please go to the website to request to be in the first beta class.

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