Program - Overview

In order to impact the root causes of youth violence, paxUnited addresses, in several ways, the lack of communication resulting in violence.

School Based Programs

Grades K-5: Let’s Talk It Out
A classroom infusion program.

Grades 6-12: Peers Making Peace – A noncredit program  
paxUnited will provide peer mediation training for the participating school campus. Each school will have a group of 15-24 students selected to represent the ethnic, racial, gender, and peer groups of the campus. In other words, the mediation team will be a microcosm of the overall campus. These students along with a staff coordinator will receive complete training in mediation skills and program implementation. The school, using these students as mediators, will develop and implement a peer mediation program to deal with conflicts between/among students. Outcomes will include significant reductions in discipline referrals, suspensions, and expulsions, improved school attendance, and improved academic performance.

Grades 6-12: paxUnited Classroom Peace Course – Approved for state high school graduation credit
paxUnited Class meets every day, just like Math and English, and gives students two years of graduation elective credit. This training enables educators to teach the new Texas State Board of Education-approved course in conflict transformation/mediation. Benefits include significant reduction in school violence, reduction in absenteeism, reduction in discipline referrals, and an increase in academic performance as measured by Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). Through service learning projects, these classes also provide conflict resolution training and service to middle and elementary schools. The cost to initiate the course on a campus is very affordable and once in place, the cost of course maintenance is minimal. Results-safer, more effective learning environments: paxUnited Class reduces the number of disciplinary problems by at least 50 per cent.

Course Overview
The abbreviated course title is "PEACE," the Course Codes for years one and two are N1290024 and N1290025, and the credit for completing the year-long course is one credit unit per year for up to two years. Students are recruited for the class, based on selection criteria and recommendations from teachers and students. The class is a small cosmos of the school population---genders, ethnicities, and groups that exist on the campus are represented. After six weeks of instruction and practice, students are prepared and empowered to serve as third-party peer mediators with other students on their own campus and/or on feeder school campuses. They "market" their mediation services to other students and begin conducting mediation sessions, usually during scheduled lunch periods. Then the course intensifies, helping students refine their communication, problem-solving, decision-making, conflict-intervention, and leadership skills. The course also includes opportunities for presentations-to students, school boards, parent groups, and community groups (including city councils); media events; and community service projects, both on campus and in the greater community. Students also conduct research projects to evaluate the success of mediation and other programs related to the prevention of violence and drug use; and in development and implementation of other school wide helping initiatives for students.

Staff Development – Classroom Peace
The staff will receive a minimum of one day's staff development training in conflict resolution and orientation to the campus mediation program. The school staff will be able to deal in a more constructive way with conflicts taking place during learning. Outcomes will include improved academic performance, fewer verbal and physical assaults, and a better working relationship between educators and students.

Grades 9-12: PAC (Positive Action Center) – Mediators as mentors
A crucial time period exists for helping every student unable to successfully integrate into the social setting of the school and facing suspension, expulsion, or dropping out. Most of these students are first sent to an on-campus suspension location, commonly referred to as "in-school-suspension," during that time. The ISS plan seldom does more than remove a disruptive student from class for a few days. No positive behavioral modification results. paxUnited changes that: ISS becomes the Positive Action Center, PAC. Students referred to PAC are the same ones referred to ISS, but in PAC students and staff trained as mediators work with those referred students to develop an action plan to modify the behaviors that caused the referral. This action plan centers on actions the referred student will take, helping the student realize self–responsibility for resolving the problem and realize power to change life’s situations. paxUnited's work in this area has proven surprisingly successful. Results are: increased student self-responsibility, fewer expulsions and suspensions, fewer dropouts, increased academic success, and improved school climate.

Alternative Settings Reentry
Each student who has been in an alternative setting, such as detention, drug/alcohol treatment, or alternative school, will before reentry participate in mediation with a representative of the campus. This component will improve the school climate, increase the student's chance of being successful in school, and increase student self-responsibility and sense of significance. It will encourage these children to participate more actively in the learning process and lessen the likelihood that they will drop out of school.

Community Based Programs

Law Enforcement/Parole/Probation Training
Parole, probation, and school resource (SRO) officers, who work with student populations in communities, will receive two days training in conflict resolution through mediation. Improved communication between officers and clients will result. By incorporating these skills in sessions involving youth, parole, probation, and SRO programs as a whole will improve. Clients (youth) will understand they are active participants in their program, not merely the "victims" of it. Therefore, their compliance with rules and requests will improve; they will be more successful, and they will be much less likely to become repeat offenders.

Intergang Mediation
Gangs are a problem for the entire community: schools, religious organizations, neighborhoods, and businesses. paxUnited will assist communities in dealing with the negative social influences of gangs through a carefully designed and orchestrated mediation process involving all facets of the community.

Adjudicated Youth Peace Programs
paxUnited has a successful history of implementing conflict mediation programs in TYC state schools, halfway houses, and alternative education programs. Youth who develop skills for nonviolently dealing with conflict choose peace over fighting.

Family Based Programs – Parent Training
Mediation skills are among the best parenting tools available. The skills are simple to learn, simple to use, and powerfully effective. Parents are always invited to attend all trainings, but in addition paxUnited will provide a two-day workshop for parents to learn how to use mediation to deal with family conflicts, especially those involving parent-child conflict. paxUnited will provide training specifically designed to address parent concerns with their children. Through the workshop, a group of parents and children will emerge trained as mediators. The school will then host bi-monthly "evenings of peace," at which time community members having conflict with children, spouses, brothers, sisters, et al, will have opportunities to resolve their conflicts through mediations, in which parents and students work together as mediators for their peers and neighbors. This aspect of the paxUnited project will have a tremendous impact on the community. Citizens continue to feel a greater sense of isolation or, more aptly, aloneness. This aloneness is responsible for many of today’s problems. Few families can survive in isolation; they need emotional and societal support. All parents have disputes with their children; many remain unresolved and result in ongoing power struggles within the family. By training a core group of parents and children to act as mediators, we will create a powerful base of community support to greatly strengthen families, engender in each family member feelings of belonging and being needed, and give each family member a sense of connection to the larger community. Projected outcomes: higher academic achievement; improved attendance; significant reductions in discipline referrals, suspensions, and expulsions; improved school climate; improved community climate; and reduced family violence.

Learn How
Design a program to meet student and school needs. Enlist the support of teachers and other school personnel. Inform all students about the program. Train new peer mediators. Support the students trained as peer mediators. Enlist new facilitators and program coordination team members. Maintain quality. Evaluate the program. Ensure that the program endures.