It was so nice to be back at The Pirates House after 6 weeks away! President Ben Brewer spoke about how the Oyster Roast was a wonderful success and thanked Marc Friday and Jason Jones for their work in organizing the event. RCSE then initiated new member Betsy Stewart - welcome to the club Betsy! After all Rotary items were discussed, Paul Tatum introduced our speaker for the day - Executive Director Jill Cheeks from the Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire.
Jill's presentation provided background information on the Mediation Center, which is staffed with a team of experienced mediators who are trained to help residents in Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, Liberty, Tattnall and Bulloch counties resolve legal disputes without turning to litigation. The Mediation Center creates a forum for individuals who are in conflict to come together and reach an agreement. The center has 75 mediators who are all volunteers. The mediators go through training before being allowed to facilitate and the amount of volunteer time is flexible. A lot of the mediation is court ordered and some of the cases in dispute are contracts, divorce, personal injury, debt, domestic disputes. The Mediation Center offers mediation, family law services, and youth programs. The youth programs focus on helping students understand their emotions and the best way to respond to their emotions. The also have a peer mediation program where students are trained to help mediate conflict amongst their peers.