February 2022 Newsletter

February 2022 Newsletter

Message from our President/CEO

Black History Month is an opportunity to commemorate not only the achievements of Black Americans throughout our county, but also our local connections to Black history here in the Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes service area where our eight county offices are located.

 

Did you know...?

 

  • Our main office in Rochester is located in the Reynolds Arcade building, adjacent to the Corinthian Street site of Frederick Douglass's famous 1852 speech, "What to the slave is the fourth of July?"

 

  • The Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI) center is located just two blocks from our main office in Rochester. Founded in 2007 by direct descendants of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, FDFI advocates for an end to racism and human trafficking, a form of modern day slavery.

 

  • The Farmington Quaker Meeting House in Ontario County is part of the National Parks Services’ Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

 

  • The Harriet Tubman home, located in Auburn, NY, honors the life of the famous abolitionist who was known as the "Moses of her people."

 

How do you connect with Black history in your county, city, town, village, or neighborhood?

 

In peace,

 

Shira May, Ph.D.

President & CEO

February is Black History Month

 

This month, the Center pays tribute to the generations of Black Americans who contributed their legacy of excellence to our field of conflict resolution.

 

Ralph Bunche (1904-1971) was the first African American and the first person of African descent to be awarded a Novel Prize. Bunche earned his doctorate in political science at Harvard University and later joined the political science department at Howard University and served as department chair for 22 years. During World War II, Bunche helped write the charter that founded the United Nations. He became a master negotiator in Middle East disputes and arranged four armistice agreements that halted the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and won him the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Bunche continued his work with the U.N. and became Undersecretary General in 1957, having prime responsibility for peacekeeping roles.

 

 

2022 is the

Year of the Tiger

 

Learn more about Lunar New Year:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFCljlSbWzw

Healing Circles

for youth age 14-18

 

Commemorating the Season of Nonviolence

January 30th - April 4th, 2022

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Stressed about community violence, the pandemic, the state of our world, or just everyday living? Join us for a free online Healing Circle to share your experiences and connect with young people in your community. 

 

HOW TO SCHEDULE A HEALING CIRCLE:

An adult will need to contact us to schedule your Healing Circle for 4-12 participants. School staff, librarians, after-school programs, or other adults: please contact Ana Quesada-Fritz at ana.quesada-fritz@iaal.org.

 

The Season for Nonviolence commemorates the period between the date of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination: January 30, 1948, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination: April 4, 1968.

 

This program is sponsored by the Rochester Restorative Administrators Group (RRAG), made up of representatives from the following partner organizations: Center for Dispute Settlement, Center for Youth, Ibero American Action League, M.K. Gandhi Institute, Partners in Restorative Initiatives, Pathways to Peace, RocRestorative at Rochester City School District

 

REVIVE Rochester:

Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) Project

 

 

 

The Center has been awarded a contract with RochesterWorks! Inc. through its Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) program. This project represents a partnership with Untrapped Ministries, Northeast High School in Rochester, BOCES 2, and Gorbel, Inc. The goal of the project is to break the cycle of gun violence through employment and supportive services.

 

The project will offer a range of services to young adults 18-24 living in the City of Rochester, including:

  • Individualized service plans
  • Workforce preparation and conflict resolution training
  • Weekly community circles
  • Job coaching
  • Job placement
  • Incentives/supportive services

 

Contact Clayton Lyons for more information: clyons@cdsadr.org

 

 

 

Dialogues Across Differences Training

February 7-9,

10:00am-2:00pm

 

Staff, volunteers, and community partners are welcome to join us for this one-of-a-kind virtual training, designed to promote skillful, transformational dialogue across profound differences of social location.

 

Suggested donation for community members: $45

 

To register, email Ronalyn Pollack at rpollack@cdsadr.org.

 

Aloha State of Mind

 

During the month of January, the Penn Yan library featured a colorful island-themed display, pictured above, designed by Yates County Program Manager Mitchell Mitchell to raise awareness about our services at the Center for Dispute Settlement.

 

Featuring creative captions including "Don't Let Conflict Erupt", "What Conflict Are You Riding?", and "Hang Ten To Peace," this lively display captured the attention of adults and children alike.

 

Do you have a creative idea for advertising the Center's services? Let us know! Your idea could be featured in our next newsletter or social media campaign.

 

To share your ideas, contact your local county office: https://www.cdsadr.org/?q=contact

 

Introducing Maia Taub, Case Manager,

Monroe County,

Custody & Visitation

 

Hi, my name is Maia Taub. I'm one of the two new staff members with The Center's Monroe County Custody and Visitation program. I come from a hybrid background of human services, paralegal studies, and, on a volunteer basis, case management. 

 

I graduated from Empire State College with my Bachelor's in human services and I wasn't sure what came next for me. I had once thought I would be a guidance counselor; then I shifted focus to social work, except that I was gradually becoming aware of the difficulties inherent in cracking into the field as a counselor, including my distaste for the treatment modality in vogue at the time. If I did not go on to pursue mental health-based social work, I could always try my hand at casework -- but caseworkers, I found, usually had the unenviable task of visiting people in their homes, which meant driving all over Monroe County. I not only had no car, I wasn't driving more than five minutes from my house to the local grocery and post office due to driving anxiety. Hm. What would come next, then?

 

While I was asking this question, my mother got a job at Bryant and Stratton College, at their Henrietta location, as a financial aid advisor. She heard me considering my future out loud and I suppose she must have done some investigating of her own, because she mentioned one day that tuition was free for family members of employees, and would I be interested in, say, their paralegal program? I was, after all, so very fond of "Law and Order". 

 

Thus I spent two years learning how to be a paralegal. 2018 and 2019. I'll bet you can guess what happened when I graduated. So there was really no going anywhere for a time, especially for my aging parents' sake; we share living space and I wasn't about to endanger their health. I checked, periodically, to see if any firms were hiring remotely -- they did not appear to be – and many of them were asking for experience I did not have for less than a living wage. 

 

Throughout the whole pandemic, I remembered with fondness my internship for a sole practitioner in Pittsford. Her name was Cynthia Rochford, and she specialized in mediated divorces. Mediation, I thought. That was where it was at. Ever since I'd seen "Fairly Legal" on USA Network lo these many years ago, I'd admired mediators. They'd carved out an alternate way of doing things, one that was much more to my taste than litigation. Meeting Cyndy, I was hooked. I wanted to be a mediator. I looked up who was doing mediation training in the area, and I contacted this Center for Dispute Settlement place I'd heard so much about. 

 

In October of 2021, I was invited to an orientation for potential volunteers. I'll call it serendipity, because CDS did happen to be hiring at the time, and I said, and I quote, "Me. Yes, I'm interested. Very interested." Maybe a month passed between that orientation and my start date here. To this day I'm amazed, because I'd spent the past decade in school and... oh. Honing my case management skills as part of my medieval recreation hobby. Let me encourage you never to overlook a single skill you gain, even if you gain it in a less-than-conventional way. 

 

Today, I (and my infamously dry humor) spend most of my days in a cozy office on the eighth floor of the Reynolds Arcade, reaching out to clients and -- I won't say helping them figure out if mediation is right for them, necessarily. I talk it over with them, but they're the ones doing the figuring out. I'm just there to bolster their thought process. As a trainee mediator, I'll eventually support the conversations our clients need to have with each other. 

 

If there's one thing I appreciate, it's the understanding that this is a client-driven experience. I have a particular fondness for the work of Carl Rogers, who pioneered the concept of client-centered therapy beginning in the 1930s. Rogers' On Becoming A Person had lived on the family bookshelf for years, but I never felt the need to read it until Bush and Folger referenced him in The Promise of Mediation. I highly recommend Rogers if you want to really understand the roots of transformative mediation, but if you don't have time, I have written a brief paper on the relevant aspects of his work. You can email me at mtaub@cdsadr.org for a copy. 

Agency Updates

 

  • The Center welcomes Madeline Hoffman as our new intern for Monroe County. Madeline is a Criminal Justice major at Monroe Community College and will be working to support our Community and Divorce Mediation Programs.

 

  • We currently have one opening for full-time staff:

 

  • Case Manager, Monroe County

 

Interested applicants may contact Kim Stowell: kstowell@cdsadr.org.

 

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