Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI) is a private, 501(c)3 non-profit dispute resolution service and training organization dedicated to helping clients resolve difficult disputes since 1994.

Program Overview: The Family Mediation Program at MWI works with never married parents, parents post divorce and parents seeking divorce to address and resolve differences that otherwise cause family conflict, threaten the structure of the family and place children in the judicial system.

Problem to be addressed: Families with children often experience conflict around changing relationships, expectations, and behavior. Never married parents and parents seeking divorce add additional layers of confusion, conflict and negative impacts on their children. Additionally, when parents divorce, child related issues including parenting and support need to be discussed and implemented.

Solution: When families want to deal with parenting, divorce, separation, child support, custody or when they are in disarray and there seem to be no more options, MWI's Family Mediation Program provides innovative, empowering, and successful mediation services. While some families turn to courts, family service organizations or family therapy, MWI’s Family Program is a resource for parents and children to access mediation services to deal with conflict effectively, providing children with a greater chance of a healthier life style and parents with an opportunity to create effective parenting plans and discuss important issues.

MWI Offers: Mediation services at convenient locations around Massachusetts during the day and each evening, free information sessions, and mediates on-site in the Suffolk Probate and Family court Department every Thursday and Friday to clients in need,

MWI's Family Mediation Program offers an alternative to traditional, longer-term counseling methods and to the adversarial processes of the courts. Mediation empowers the parties to take control over the situation and reach agreements.

In October 2006, MWI changed the focus of its Public Service Initiative from helping to prevent entry into or continued involvement in the Juvenile Justice system to providing free on-site mediation service in Court each Thursday and Friday. In 2007, this program has received fifty-three referrals and all 106 parents chose to go forward with meditation. To date, an overwhelming majority of families report that mediation addressed the conflict that had brought them into court and that mediation led to improvements in their overall family situation. Mediation has shown its positive short and long-term effects: Mediation provides children and parents with the opportunity and self-confidence to resolve their own family crises, lessens the need for court intervention, and contributes to the likelihood of the family structure remaining intact during the child's young adulthood.

The development of MWI's Family Mediation Program is an example of how MWI is a leader in its commitment to the provision of preventive services and to coordinating efforts, resources and community input in order to provide the most appropriate supportive services. Never married parents, post divorce couples and parents seeking divorce will find mediation instrumental in helping them with a child support, separation and a parenting plan that will assist them in preserving family relationships while they raise their children.
 

click here to support MWI’s Family Mediation Program

click here for an overview of MWI’s Public Service Initiatives

For more information about supporting MWI’s Family Mediation Program, please contact:

Charles Doran
Executive Director 
Mediation Works Incorporated 
4 Faneuil Hall - Fourth Floor 
Boston, MA 02109 

Phone:   617-973-9739 x22 / 800-348-4888 
Fax:       617-973-9532 
E-mail:  cdoran@mwi.org 
Web:     www.mwi.org