Dayton Mediation Center expands online
Group helping people take stressful situations off their plates virtually.
The Dayton Mediation Center has expanded its operations online to help people during the coronavirus pandemic.
The center intervenes in more than 1,000 conflict situations annually. The center’s services have been utilized by residents, neighborhood organizations, businesses, employers and employees, schools, law enforcement agencies and court systems.
“We help people address conflicts involving anything from neighbor or workplace disputes, a lot of things from the court system and police departments. We have been around for 32 years and I think we are one of Dayton’s best kept secrets,” said Michelle Zaremba, division manager for
Planning & Community Development, which oversees the operations at the Dayton Mediation Center.
The center provides mediation services free of charge to individuals who live, work, or attend school in Dayton. There is a price structure for others that includes several discounts and special pricing.
Zaremba said the organization offers an effective way for Dayton residents to deal with issues or dispute they are facing with their neighbors.
The mediation center is part of the city of Dayton, she noted, “but we are a community mediation center and what that means is that we have volunteers that come from the community that we train and then they go back to their neighborhoods and use their skills to address conflict instead of having to rely on police departments and court systems.”
While people are spending a lot more time at home under shelter-in-place orders due to the pandemic, issues like barking dogs, loud music along with various other nuisance complaints are on the rise, according to Zaremba.
“The police really can’t ticket a lot of those things, but it really is a quality of life issue and the mediation center can help get the neighbors together and have a conversation about it and figure out what they want to do,” she told the Dayton Daily News. “We help people when they are really angry and frustrated. We help them make better choices for themselves and hear what the other person has to say.”
Ohio adopted the Uniform Mediation Act in 2005. That act along with rules of procedure by individual courts provide a legally binding and enforceable agreement as created by the parties themselves.
“If the mediation case comes to us from the court system, and they’ve referred it, then we can create an agreement that would be read into the record and become legally binding,” Zaremba said. “So, right now with all of these evictions on hold, and cases in the juvenile court or small claims that have been sitting while these courts are not in session, we can help mediate these issues and take some stress off of people that already have so much on their plate.”
She tells the story of two truck drivers involved in a small claims dispute, that resolved the issue virtually as one was in Iowa and the other in Dayton.
“They were able to address the issue, sign it online and it became a legal court document,” Zaremba said.
Mediation Specialist Arch Grieve said the center is adapting to the COVID-19 crisis and is conducting mediations through Zoom and other online tools.
“It’s been a dramatic shift for us because we prefer to be in the room with the parties, but because of COVID-19, we have been doing all of our mediations over the phone or via Zoom,” Grieve said. “It’s been a big shift for us because we didn’t even have a Zoom account or DocuSign account before the pandemic and everything was pretty much done in person.”
To contact the Dayton Mediation Center, call 937333-2345 or visit www.daytonmediation.org.