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  • Closing Circle for Domestic Workers Mediation Training
    Closing Circle for Domestic Workers Mediation Training
  • Conflict Skills Training for City Year Staff
    Conflict Skills Training for City Year Staff
  • Conflict Skills Workshop for Elders in Boston
    Conflict Skills Workshop for Elders in Boston
  • Gail_Packer & Boston Street Workers at CDSCs Annual Celebration
    Gail_Packer & Boston Street Workers at CDSCs Annual Celebration
  • Gail_Packer & Boston Street Workers at CDSCs Annual Celebration
    Gail_Packer & Boston Street Workers at CDSCs Annual Celebration
  • International Visitors from China
    International Visitors from China
  • MA College of Art & Design
    MA College of Art & Design
  • Positive Youth Engagement for Middle School Children in Cambridge
    Positive Youth Engagement for Middle School Children in Cambridge

Registration for our Fall 2024 Mediation training is open!

See our Events page for details and to register.

Sign up to join our CDSC Bash on Oct. 24, 2024!

See upcoming events in our new News and Events section for more information.

Join our weekly info session about CDSC and mediation

Informations sessions are every Monday from 12 to 12:30pm.

Mission Statement

Established in 1979, the Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC) is a private, not-for-profit mediation and training center dedicated to providing an alternative and affordable forum for resolving conflict. CDSC promotes better ways to understand and deal with conflict through skilled teams of pro bono mediators, training programs in mediation and conflict management, and broad community outreach. We are committed to making our services accessible to underserved populations and to addressing emerging community needs.

Our Services

Mediation Training

Mediation Training

Our next Basic Mediation Training will be in September in hybrid format.
The class will be held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, plus Saturdays during the day.
Registration is open. Please see the event page to register.

New weekly information session

             Want to learn more about mediation and CDSC? 
Join our new weekly information session for answers to your questions about CDSC and mediation.

Ask about mediation, why it matters, what is CDSC and what we offer, and get the answers from staff. 

Information sessions are held every Monday from 12 to 12:30pm 
at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84238635073.

Please come meet  the CDSC staff and ask questions! 

Takin' it to the Streets

 Takin' it to the Streets: How a community mediation center responded to emerging needs Read article here

final streetworkers

FREE Tenant & Landlord Mediation

CDSC is providing FREE mediation services to Tenants and Landlords involved in evictions.
This program is part of the Massachusetts statewide Eviction Diversion Initiative, run by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) and the MA Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD).

If you are a Tenant or Landlord, dealing with eviction or other housing-related conflicts OR if you have any questions about your eligibility for our mediation services,
Please Contact our Housing Case Manager at cdscintake@communitydispute.org

Conflict Management Training Workshops

Deal with Conflict Effectively: Tools for your Toolbox

For organizations and groups, skill-development for:

  • Agencies: managers, supervisors, line staff
  • Professional associations: such as in eldercare, human resources, social work, law
  • Schools: middles and high school students, faculty, and administrators
  • Colleges: residential life RA’s and professional staff
  • Youth groups: at-risk youth and youth workers

CDSC will customize an interactive, skill-based workshop and bring it directly to you.
The time frame is flexible with several options: 2 hours, half day, and full day.

Workshop Topics:

  • Understanding the dynamics of conflict
  • Common characteristics of people in conflict
  • Styles of responding to conflict
  • How conflict escalates: identifying factors
  • Strategies for de-escalating conflict
  • Intervention and prevention
  • Neutrality and dealing with bias
  • Giving and receiving feedback
  • Fostering teamwork and collaborative problem-solving
  • Having difficult conversations
  • Mediation overview: principles, process and mediator role

In Your Workplace:

Considerations as to how this workshop can benefit the workplace:

  • Are you looking for tools to help you become a better manager?
  • Is workplace conflict decreasing productivity and morale and increasing costs?
  • Have you dealt with a difficult situation that you wish had gone better?
  • Are you a member of a team where conflict and tension are hindering success?
  • Does your employer depend on you to quickly and effectively manage workplace conflicts and prevent them from escalating?

Workshop goals:

  • build in-house capacity to address costly and disruptive workplace conflict more effectively.
  • demonstrate the organization’s commitment to a harmonious work environment.
  • provide managers, senior management, project leaders and staff at all levels the opportunity to develop the skills needed to enhance high-performing teams.
  • special focus in working with residence life departments at local colleges and human service organizations.

On Campus Residential Life:

This workshop is designed for resident advisors, resident directors and student leaders who seek to enhance their ability to deal with sensitive residential life issues on the college campus.

The training is an ideal opportunity for colleges and universities to:

  • build in-house capacity to address disruptive and delicate student conflicts more effectively.
  • demonstrate the school’s commitment to a harmonious living environment
  • provide resident advisors the opportunity to develop conflict resolution skills.

Considerations as to how this workshop can benefit student life:

  • Are you looking for tools to help RA’s become more effective at managing conflict?
  • Are student conflicts disrupting residential life?
  • Have your RA’s dealt with difficult situations that you wish had gone better?
  • Does your school depend on RA’s to quickly and effectively manage student conflicts and prevent them from escalating?

This conflict management workshop is the ideal opportunity for resident life student as well as professional staff to acquire the vital skills needed to help build and maintain harmonious living environments.

Relevant experience: Boston College, Endicott College, MA College of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Mount Ida College, Pine Manor College, Salve Regina College, Tufts University

Youth in your School and in your Community:

CDSC trains students in middle and high schools to mediate peer conflicts. As mediators, teens acquire meaningful skills for handling conflict throughout their lives.

Past experience: For over 15 years, CDSC was a part of the mediation program known as SCORE (Student Conflict Resolution Experts) , co-funded by the Office of the Attorney General and the school. CDSC developed and supervised a very successful peer mediation program in at Northeast Metro Tech, a regional vocational school serving a diverse population of 1,175 students from 12 communities north of Boston.

CDSC trains at-risk youth and youth workers in community centers and after-school programs.

CDSC has customized training workshops for the following:
Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Cambridge Family & Children’s Services, Cambridge Housing Authority, Cambridge Police Department, Central Boston Elder Services, Digital Equipment Corporation, Fenway Community Health Center, Girl Scouts Patriots’ Trail Council, Habitat for Humanity Boston, Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services.

Contact us for more information on conflict management workshops.