First of all, you don't need to be a lawyer.
You just need to like helping people solve problems, whether it be a dog that barks incessantly first thing in the morning or a landlord who won't return a tenant's deposit.
That's the job of the mediators in the Palo Alto Mediation Program. Mediators will take the case and guide the warring parties into coming up with a mutually agreeable solution.
Palo Alto's 20-year-old program, a model for others around the country, is looking for seven or eight new volunteers who want to work with neighborhoods, landlords and tenants, and consumers and small businesses.
"What I like about it is it's a way to help people solve their own problems with just a little bit of organizing from us," said Alice Fischgrund, a retired social worker and librarian who has been a mediator for more than six years.
To keep up with the average 120 cases a year, the program has 25 mediators who live or work in Palo Alto and serve two year terms. The mediators don't have to know about law, although some of them are lawyers. Others are teachers, social workers, professors, students, contractors and retirees.
"It requires someone who is interested in listening and has a commitment to . . . creating community peace," said Liza Julian, mediation specialist for Peninsula Area Information and Referral Service (PAAIRS).
PAAIRS works closely with the Palo Alto Mediation Program, referring cases and training the mediators. Mediators don't work with custody cases or criminal cases.
Neighborhood problems typically involve fences; trees that shed, lean or block the sun; barking dogs; and noises from stereos, playing kids and bouncing basketballs.
Applications are due April 1. For more information and an application, call PAAIRS at 856-4062. For the first time, the program will charge new mediators $125 for the 25-hour training that results in a certificate in community mediation. Scholarships are available.
--Heather Rock Woods
Back up to the Table of Contents Page