A Live Interactive Training on Zoom
2024 TRAINING DATES
Be sure to join our mailing list to receive the future 2024 Basics training dates: Join here.
Winter 2024
Dates and Times
- January 27-28, Sat & Sun, 9:30am – 6:00pm PST
- February 3-4, Sat & Sun, 9:30am – 6:00pm PST
Tuition
- CB Member: Early Bird – $1045 | Full – $1145 (After Jan 12, 6pm PST)
- Public: Early Bird – $1095 | Full – $1195 (After Jan 12, 6pm PST)
- Nonprofit: $795 (This discount applies to staff only and must be paid for by the nonprofit organization. It does not apply to volunteers.)
MCLE
This course is approved by the State Bar of California for 40 MCLE credits including 4 credits for the Recognition and Elimination of Bias in the Legal Profession and Society (provider #9323).
The Basics of Mediation Training
Earn Your Certificate in Mediation
Become a Certified Mediator with Community Boards’ 40-hour Basics of Mediation training. It’s ideal for people who want to learn to mediate and to enhance their conflict resolution skills.
Community Boards’ nationally-recognized The Basics of Mediation teaches a practical and proven step-by-step framework to become a successful neutral third-party mediator.
A live 40-hour interactive training, Basics introduces and reinforces the skills critical for effective conflict resolution: clear communication, problem-solving, constructive engagement, mediation, and negotiation. Participants receive a training curriulum and supplemental handouts, attend lectures and presentations, work together in large and small groups, and discover and refine their personal techniques through a variety of coached role-play practices. These skills can be used to mediate conflicts that arise in the workplace, in community, and at home.
Live Interactive Training on Zoom
Our Zoom training is a highly engaging mix of discussion, role play, and coaching that builds participants’ skills step-by-step, and gives you the framework, practice, and confidence to mediate disputes.
Participants get access to supplemental training videos on YouTube and additional reading materials. Coached role-play practices are held in breakout rooms with immediate feedback and guidance. Each day is designed to be fun and engaging to maximize learning.
Training Topics
The Basics of Mediation training topics include:
- Employing effective communication and active listening
- Dealing with strong emotions
- De-escalating anger
- Addressing diversity
- Balancing power
- Breaking impasse
- Managing a negotiation
Professional Benefits
The Basics of Mediation provides these professional benefits:
- Gain credibility and professional expertise
- Learn a highly desirable workplace skill set
- Join a community of alternative dispute resolution professionals
Certificated
Community Boards’ Basics of Mediation training meets the requirements of California Trial Courts’ mediation programs and fulfills the education and training requirements of California’s Dispute Resolution Program Act (DRPA). Upon completion, each participant receives a signed certificate.
After completing the training, participants are invited to join Community Boards’ volunteer Community Mediator team which provides opportunities to practice and hone mediation skills among a cadre of compassionate, skilled volunteer community mediators.
Become a Community Mediator
Community Boards’ Neighborhood Mediation Program provides a range of conflict resolution services to all San Franciscans. Upon completion of Basics, participants are invited to become a Community Mediator. By volunteering, participants both help people resolve their disputes and continue to expand and refine their conflict resolution skill sets.
Here are what others have said about Basics: Participant Testimonials
Our Training Team
Robin Pomerenke
Robin has mediated a myriad of cases ranging from small claims court, landlord tenant, workplace and community conflicts. They specialize in relational and community conflicts approaching them with values of repair. They have created customized workshops as well as facilitated multiple 40-hour mediation courses for public and organizational clients, including Google.
Through their work with SEEDS CRC, they have trained volunteer mediators to staff community mediation programs for SF Bay Area cities and counties and beyond. They co-founded their collaborative practice with the goal of approaching conflict resolution process with a holistic mindset. Robin believes communication is a practice, one they enjoy deepening alongside the communities they train. Robin is co-founder of Moksha Healing Collaborative. Learn more about Robin.
Ramsay Boly
Ramsay Boly is a Burkinabé-American practitioner whose identities draw from a global spectrum of cultures. His work in conflict transformation is informed by his quest for peace and belonging that requires navigating exclusionary identity-based dynamics that root in coloniality.
Ramsay has facilitated and designed trainings in mediation, conflict transformation, and restorative justice as the former Community Programs Manager at SEEDS CRC. His practice as a mediator, restorative justice facilitator and mentor centers a decolonial approach to engage with racial (and other identity-based) harms. Ramsay views conflict as an entry point for individual, collective, and systemic transformation that presents an opportunity to facilitate healing and liberating outcomes by engaging with the narratives that construct the meaning of identity, conflict and belonging.
Ramsay is currently an Assistant Director at the office of Restorative Justice Practices at the University of California, San Francisco, where he leads community building and restorative processes for staff, faculty, and students.
Cancellation & Refund Policy
Though it rarely happens, we reserve the right to cancel a training. Should we cancel, registrants will receive a full refund. We also reserve the right to substitute trainers or presenters. All other cancellations will receive a refund minus the appropriate cancellation fee described below.
Cancellation & Transfer Fees
- Cancellations 11 or more business days before the training start date will incur a $50 cancellation fee. This fee will be waived one time if registration is applied to a future training.
- Cancellations 6-10 business days before the training start date will incur a $150 cancellation fee. $100 of this fee will be waived one time if registration is applied to a future training.
- Cancellations 5 or fewer business days before the training start date will incur HALF THE ENROLLMENT FEE. $100 of this fee will be waived one time if registration is applied to a future training.
Financial Assistance Application
Community Boards is committed to ensuring accessibility to all our trainings and workshops. Awards of financial aid are needs based. Our primary goals are to provide financial assistance and to maintain diversity in our pool of volunteer Community Mediators.
All information in the application is confidential. Please note that applicants may be requested to provide additional information.
Submit your online application: Financial Assistance Application Form.
Application deadline: Completed applications must be submitted no later than three weeks prior to the selected training date.
- Winter 2024: Friday, January 5, 6pm PST
Be sure to join our email list for future updates on The Basics of Mediation and other training opportunities.
Questions?
Trainings: Sarah Moss, Mediation and Training Coordinator, smoss@communityboards.org
General inquiries: Jim Garrison, Communications Director, jgarrison@communityboards.org