Newsletter Contents:
- Note from Gail
- Trainings, Workshops & Services
- Support CDSC in 2022
- Meet CDSC Intern: David London
- The Value of Effective Co- Mediation with Deborah Heller
- Get Involved
Newsletter Contents:
- Note from Gail
- CDSC Bash!
- Trainings
- Pathways Program
- Farewell to Debra
- AmazonSmile
- Support CDSC in 2023
Newsletter Contents:
- Note from Gail
- CDSC Virtual Bash!
- Meet Our Youth Coordinator
- CDSC Diversity Taskforce
- CDSC Mediator Spotlight
- Trainings, Workshops & Services
- Get Involved
Newsletter Contents:
- 2021 Mimi Grosser Volunteer Mediator Awards
- Meet our CDSC Interns
- CDSC Mediation Case Story
- Update on CDSC's District Court Work
- Trainings, Workshops & Services
- Get Involved
Newsletter Contents:
- Letter from Executive Director
- Welcome Our new Housing Case Manager
- Diversity Initiative
- Training, Workshops & Services
- CDSC Roundtables
- Volutneer Mediators Launch Book Club
- Get Involved
For more than two decades, Mimi Grosser has been an invaluable player in the CDSC lineup and a role model for at least two generations of CDSC volunteer mediators, interns and Board members.
The Mimi Grosser Scholarship Fund was created to honor Grosser and to spotlight the extraordinary service of CDSC’s cadre of volunteer mediators. The Mimi Fund, as it is known, provides scholarship support for deserving participants in CDSC training and professional development programs.
CDSC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1979. To learn more about mediation and training opportunities, or to make a gift to the Mimi Grosser Scholarship Fund please click here.
Gail Packer (left) was hired in 1988 as the Executive Director of the Community Dispute Settlement Center. Packer and Mimi Grosser (right), a volunteer at the time, have worked closely for 27 years, building a strong working relationship and helping thousands of people resolve conflicts in Cambridge and beyond.
The Picture of Dedication: 27 Years Later
In 1987, Mimi Grosser’s idea of “retirement” was to learn more about something new: the emerging field of conflict resolution. At the time, Grosser was retiring from a distinguished career as a teacher at Newton North High School. After twenty years of teaching history, Grosser wanted to know more about how people resolve conflicts peacefully and collaboratively: she was drawn to learn more about community mediation.
Grosser, a long-time Cambridge resident, found her way to the Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC), then a program of the Cambridgeport Problem Center. She enrolled in a 30-hour Mediation Training with the intention of doing volunteer work in her retirement. She wound up staying at CDSC for 27 years.
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Please Contact: Danae Kristiansen, CDSC 617-876-5376
VOLUNTEERS FOR 20 YEARS HONORED AT CDSC
(Cambridge, MA) June 24, 2014: The Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC) honored two volunteer mediators with Mimi Grosser Scholarship Fund Awards: Dr. Roberta Kosberg and Jo-Ann Leinwand. They also honored Cambridge resident Ellen Kanner for her efforts as their pro bono fundraising consultant.
Roberta Kosberg, Ph.D., is a professor of Communication at Curry College and author of several studies that examine the power of language and the relationship of gender, power and the word. Dr. Kosberg has been a volunteer mediator at CDSC for nearly 20 years and has conducted more than 200 mediation sessions.
Jo-Ann Leinwand, a former president of the Greater Boston Women’s Council of Realtors, is an Accredited Buyer’s Realtor, a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist and a Certified Home Staging Professional at Keller Williams Realty. Leinwand has been a member of the CDSC court-based mediation team since 2001 with more than 100 court—mediated cases to her credit.
Ellen Kanner has led development efforts at many non-profit organizations in Boston and in the Berkshires, where she was a resident until 2002. She trained as a mediator with CDSC in 2010 and has served as its pro bono development consultant since that time.
Two Cambridge Nonprofits Named Nonprofit Excellence Award Finalists
BOSTON- May X, 2014The Massachusetts Nonprofit Network(MNN) is pleased to announce that two Cambridge nonprofits: Community Dispute Settlement Center, Inc., a mediation-services organization, and Adrienne Klein, Community Outreach Director of Cambridge Community Services, a youth-development organization, have been selected as finalists for the 2014 Nonprofit Excellence Awards. The Excellence Awards will be presented at MNN’s celebration of Nonprofit Awareness Day, a statewide holiday on June 9 that highlights the work of the nonprofit sector and raises awareness of causes throughout Massachusetts.
Come to this dynamic seminar facilitated by two topnotch mediators & experienced domestic relations lawyers:
Divorce Mediation Seminar:
Update on Alimony plus Your Mediation Challenges
Thursday, December 1st
9:30am-11:30am
Presented By Rachel B. Goldman & Michael L. Leshin
Update/refresher on Alimony:
Focus will be on the scope of the new issues which couples need to address, such as, duration, cohabitation, types of alimony, and retirement, related to the Alimony Reform Act of 2011.
Hypotheticals will be reviewed.
Your challenges in mediating divorce cases:
Bring your stumpers to confer with our experts: divorce mediation cases/situations that were challenging to you.
Location: CDSC 60 Gore Street. Cambridge, MA 02141
Pre-requisite: Divorce Mediation Training
Registration:
Cost: $75
CDSC Pro Bono Mediators: $25 (Use discount code CDSCMEDIATOR)
Space is limited to 24 participants
RACHEL B. GOLDMAN is a partner at Grindle Robinson LLP in Wellesley where she specializes in collaborative family law, mediation, conciliation, and settlement negotiation.
Rachel is listed in the book "Best Lawyers in America" and Boston Magazine's "Top Women Attorneys in Massachusetts" and has been named a Super Lawyer in the areas of Family Law and Family Law Mediation.
Rachel teaches introductory and advanced mediation courses with the Community Dispute Settlement Center and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and frequently presents to professional groups, law students, college students, and the public about divorce law, collaborative practice and mediation.
MICHAEL L. LESHIN is a partner at Ginsburg & Leshin, LLP in Wellesley. He focuses his practice on family law and mediation.
He is a past president of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation and has been certified as a divorce mediator by MCFM. He serves on the Board of Directors of CDSC. In 2013 he received MCFM's John Adams Fiske Award for Excellence in Mediation. He is the author of the "Massachusetts Family Law Sourcebook," published annually by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. He is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America," (Family Law, 2006 - 2016 and Family Law Mediation 2007 - 2016).
He has lectured on tax, mediation and family law issues for MCLE, MCFM, Mediation Works, Inc. and CDSC.