About Us - History

paxUnited, formerly PeaceMakers Unlimited, Inc. is a Texas nonprofit prevention organization committed to helping protect youth by providing comprehensive conflict resolution and mediation training services for schools, parents and community based organizations. The core program is Peers Making Peace, a conflict mediation program for youth, designed to be implemented by trained student mediators in elementary, middle, and high schools, and facilitated and supervised by teachers, counselors, administrators, and/or other pupil support staff.

Peers Making Peace was developed by Susan Armoni, Ph.D., while she was employed by Region 10 Education Service Center. The program became so successful at the regional level that in 1992 the Office of the Texas Attorney General adopted the program and underwrote a statewide training effort named the "Texas Mediation Initiative." Over 200 schools were trained to implement the Peers Making Peace program. The success of TMI resulted in the founding of paxUnited to provide direct services in establishing on-site conflict resolution and peer mediation programs, developing prevention programs based on PMP, and conducting PMP trainings at the state, national, and international levels. paxUnited is based in Richardson, Texas, overseen by a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors, and headed by Susan Armoni, Executive Director, since inception.

Evaluation of the Peers Making Peace program conducted by Sam Houston State University showed immediate significant reductions in classroom conduct problems and campus conflicts and significant improvements in student attitudes and sense of personal safety at school. When the program is in operation four semesters or more, there are significant reductions in school disciplinary referrals and delinquent and violent acts.

The Peers Making Peace model is recognized by the U. S. Dept. of Education (USDOE) Safe, Disciplined, and Drug–Free Schools Expert Panel as an "effective school–based program that promotes healthy students and safe, disciplined, and drug–free schools" and is the winner of a USDOE 2000 Promising Programs for Safe, Disciplined and Drug–Free Schools Award.

Building on the original program, paxUnited has also developed a wide range of mediation–based programs for special youth populations, such as in–school suspension programs, alternative education programs, and juvenile justice settings such as alternative education centers and state schools. In addition, paxUnited has developed a family mediation program for use by parents with their children.