March 20, 2024 – On February 1 and 2, WPDI renewed its partnership with the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) to promote peer mediation as a systematic practice in schools. WPDI delivered a series of all-day training sessions to school counselors, taping the Domestic Harmonizer Program’s peer mediation component to help them learn about the process and implementing the system on their own school campuses.
The program was attended by 11 counselors from 4 different school districts in Los Angeles County, including Los Angeles Unified School District, Culver City Unified School District, Bellflower Unified School District, and Inglewood School District. Participants came to the training upon hearing about it from WPDI’s partner, LACOE, which promoted the training and provided training facilities.
One of the participants in the training, Mr. Chris Ordoñez, a school counselor from Culver City Middle School stated, “The Domestic Harmonizer Program’s peer mediation training was transformative for me. After this training, I can’t help but think I’ve been holding mediations incorrectly. This training was comprehensive and effective. The trainers fostered a nurturing and empowering learning environment, which is imperative in this work. I can’t wait to take all I’ve learned through this training and bring it to my site! This training is beneficial for all humans, not just educators.” We are grateful for Mr. Ordoñez’s kind testimonial and appreciated his participation in the training.
During the training, Ms. Kristin Jones, a counselor from the Bellflower Unified School District also engaged with WPDI and discussed with us her hopes to collaborate on an ongoing basis to promote peer mediation as well as other DHP offerings, such as the new Inner Spark social-emotional learning program. Ms. Jones said, “This training was informative and inspirational. It was a great reminder as a school clinician to let students take the lead in their own social-emotional learning. I have already spoken to my school leadership team about incorporating more of this work into our regular practice. We will be integrating these practices and training for our peer counselors in the coming school year, and hope to see positive changes in our climate and culture.” Beyond the exciting prospect of expanding the reach of our program to new partners schools, we were very touched by her response to the training, which testified to its positive impact in terms of inviting individuals to redouble their efforts for the community.
As a platform for learning how to better serve our schools, the training covered topics such as the peer mediation steps, communication tools, conflict styles, and best practices in establishing peer mediation programs at schools. The training also offered participants a chance to connect with one another, share their practices in addressing school-based conflict among students, and opportunities for participants to engage with WPDI and LACOE experts. We hope that this training becomes a stepping stone in the consolidation of an on-going collaboration with LACOE to support educators for disseminating a culture of peaceful communication, restorative justice, and nonviolent interactions in our schools.
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