JAMS Foundation Awards Nearly $125,000 in New Grants

November 16, 2011

Irvine, Calif. – The nonprofit JAMS Foundation announced that it approved eight 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 Foundation Grants, which provide financial support up to $50,000 for ADR initiatives with national impact, and Opportunity Grants, which award up to $10,000 for smaller scale and more localized projects.

“As the need for education and innovation in resolving conflict grows, the JAMS Foundation is proud to provide funding to programs promoting effective alternative dispute resolution,” said Jay Folberg, executive director of the JAMS Foundation. “Each of the grants will provide an innovative application of dispute resolution service or education and the JAMS Foundation is happy to support them.”

The JAMS Foundation will provide Foundation Grants to the following three initiatives:

Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA) - Institute on Court ADR Systems Design (Year 2)- $29,836 to fund a second training institute on court-ADR systems designed for non-U.S. lawyers, judges and court professionals. The seven-day intensive program combines practical and theoretical instruction, simulation exercises, one-on-one consultations, opportunities to meet with local judges, administrators and practitioners and to observe select court-ADR programs.

Rational Games (Cambridge, MA) - Upgrade and Marketing of Cool School Game Project (Year 2)-$30,000 to continue support for the refinement, upgrade and national marketing of Cool School, a fully-developed interactive video game designed to teach conflict resolution to children ages 5-8. 

UCLA School of Law (Los Angeles, CA) - Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Colloquium- $15,000 to co-sponsor an annual Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Colloquium, bringing together nationally recognized experts on topics related to conflict resolution to share their work with students, faculty, alumni and the legal community.

The JAMS Foundation will provide Opportunity Grants to the following five initiatives:

California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA) – Taking Conflict Out of the Community Project - $10,000 to support the implementation of a program employing conflict resolution education, assertiveness training and peer mentoring to reduce gang violence in a predominantly low-income, Hispanic community. University graduate students will be employed to train high school students, who will then introduce the same skills to elementary and middle school students through after-school programs.

Community Boards (San Francisco, CA) - Taking Mediation to the People: Conflict Resolution Clinics - $10,000 to fund an innovative effort to reach underserved communities by establishing ongoing, on-site Conflict Resolution Clinics at several population-dense and high-need locations. The clinics will provide outreach, intake and case development to those requiring community mediation services, with a focus on low-income, Spanish- and Chinese-speaking disputants.

Home Share Now (Barre, VT) - Staff Mediator for Home Share Program - $10,000 to help support a unique program providing conflict resolution assistance to participants in a home sharing program for low-income seniors and disabled persons through employment of a staff mediator offering conflict coaching and dispute resolution assistance on an ongoing basis as needed. 

Mass Transit Street Theater and Video (New York, NY) - Peer Mediation/Conflict Resolution Training in Bronx Public Schools - $10,000 to implement and expand a model program providing peer mediation and conflict resolution education to students at a large public high school in the Bronx. The program combines peer mediation training, arts education and workshops for parents and students in an effort to create a ‘peace first’ culture in urban public schools.

Queens Legal Services (Jamaica, NY) - Family & Divorce Mediation Pilot Project - $10,000 to help fund a pilot program providing mediation services to low-income families and divorcing couples. Augmenting the organization’s existing legal services, the mediation program will include consultation with pro bono family law attorneys, as well as mediations conducted by experienced attorney-mediators.

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 more than $4 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its more than 270 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s most important cases. JAMS is online at www.jamsadr.com.