Training in conflict mediation is achieved thanks to a collaboration between the Alliance for Peace: For a New Loíza and the Law School of the UPR.
San Juan, February 7, 2020 | The Alliance for Peace: For a New Loíza entered into a collaboration agreement with the Fideicomiso para la Escuela de Derecho (Law School) of the Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) to provide to the Alliance staff advanced training in conflict mediation. The initiative will allow them to reinforce the strategies they use to meet the objective of reducing violence between communities in Loíza. The Alliance is among Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico (FCPR), the Municipality of Loíza, Nuestra Escuela y Taller Salud.
“The Alliance is very grateful for the collaboration that the Law School offers us to strengthen the human capital of the members of this philanthropic initiative. In community settings, Alliance staff respond to unforeseen needs, which require immediate responses, so they must have creative resources at their disposal, such as those provided by this training for the interruption of violence”, said the president of the FCPR, Dr. Nelson I. Colón Tarrats.
The Alliance is a project of the FCPR, under the Obama Foundation’s MyBrother’s Keeper Community Challenge initiative. It also has the philanthropic support of W.K. Kellogg Foundation, National Basketball Players Association Foundation (NBPAF), and The Prospect Hill Foundation.
“The Law School is very excited about this opportunity to serve as an educational vehicle for the members of the Alliance. We believe in conflict mediation as a strategy for peace and we have academic resources that master it perfectly. So we are honored to be able to contribute to this project of equity and social justice for the communities of Loíza”, said Vivian Neptune Rivera, dean of the Law School of the UPR.
The course will last 25 hours, will start tomorrow, Saturday, February 8, and will benefit 15 people who work in the institutions that make up the Alliance.
Another objective of this project is to provide educational and employment alternatives to the young participants, who are between 15 and 30 years old and are neighbors of Pueblo, Medianía Baja and Medianía Alta neighborhoods -communities with personal and family fights that limit that some of these may leave their environment so as not to put their security at risk.
The topics that will be addressed in the training – which uses concepts from the Restorative Justice model, with which we are currently working to interrupt violence – will help staff to: identify factors that may help or challenges them in dealing with a conflictive situation; use immediate strategies and best practices to respond to interpersonal conflicts; increase their ability to identify and manage their own personal prejudice; and obtain a professional tool to minimize burnout resulting from efforts to reduce normalized violent behavior.
The Conflict Mediation Program is run by Dr. Mildred Negrón Martínez and was structured by the Continuing Legal Education Program of the UPR Law School.
The My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge initiative will be implemented over a two year period, ending in December 2020. By then, it is expected to reduce incidents of violence in the municipality; increase the number of young people who have completed their fourth year of High School; and increase the number of young people active in a formal employment experience. So far, 45 young people are part of the initiative.