Vision

We envision a Washington, DC where mediation is used to build strong and peaceful communities, and every DC resident has access to high-quality, collaborative conflict resolution services.

Our Team

Before Serena joined the board of CMDC, Serena volunteered with a community mediation center in Baltimore, Maryland. She was looking for an opportunity to learn how to mediate well and never envisioned herself as a community organizer, and then she fell in love with the mission, the vision, and the people. When she learned that community mediation was forming in her hometown, Washington, D.C., Serena knew that she wanted to participate in developing the program. Other than mediating, Serena enjoys being a wife, mom, spending time with friends, hanging out by the water, and reading a good book. Serena is a founding Board member and Core team member.
Sal worked for 15 years in academia as a Psychology Professor before transitioning to nonprofit work doing Workforce Development training and program management. His vision is to help others build and maintain healthy relationships with conflict transformation being the primary focus. His extensive background in leadership facilitation supports his efforts to keep showing up and sharing as a core outreach team member who has been with CMDC since its very beginning. Sal attended a CMDC info session and then magically found himself lost in various counties of MD attending the basic mediation training. Once recovered, he became CMDC's first staff person. Today, he continues to serve as a conflict coach and outreach volunteer.
Caroline likes reading, rollerblading, wearing cool earrings, and watching 30-minute comedies. She’s currently the Director of Community Mediation DC, passionate about co-creating spaces to have difficult conversations and harnessing intense conflict energy to rebuild relationships and power. When she’s not mediating, training, or spending time with this amazing group of volunteers, you can find her working on local criminal justice issues or hanging in her group house in Petworth
Sadia is a mediator and founding core team member with CMDC.
Kayla is a Canadian-born, Maryland-raised soul who is now finding her niche building peace in DC as mediator and former Board Treasurer & outreach team lead with CMDC. She appreciates a deep book with a cup of tea, a friendly pool game with a dark beer, or good company with a smooth bourbon. When she is not promoting collaboration and conflict resolution in communities, Kayla is most likely to be found on the floor swing dancing the night away.
Jullion hails from the First State, and was a founding Board of Director for CMDC while volunteering as a mediator. When Jullion is not working he’s either being a language nerd (Chinese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and French); hogging the mic at karaoke; listening to opera (preferably Verdi, Puccini or Bellini…but Rossini and Donizzetti will also do); or working on his inclusive listening mediation skills as a volunteer with Community Mediation DC
Sig is a founding core team member of CMDC.
Natalie loves cooking, spending time with her family and partner, hiking, and riding a bike around DC. She's currently the Board Chair of Community Mediation DC and honored to help govern this amazing organization committed to generative conflict resolution with deep care and love. When she's not serving on the board, Natalie works as an organizational justice consultant, facilitator and rabble rouser at Change Elemental, building a world where power and resources are shared in just ways.
Troy was trained as a mediator with CMDC in 2018 and can't wait to get you his bio.
Jeffery is a mediator with CMDC who is working hard to get you his fun bio.
Vivian is originally from Sweden and has lived in the DC Metropolitan area now for about 20 years. She has been active in the animal welfare community for many years and works as a dog behavior consultant. She enjoys going on local adventures with her daughter, learning new things, spending time in nature with her dog, strong coffee, red wine and inspiring conversation.
Yusef Rabb
Lauren is a mediator and brochure-designer with CMDC who's bio you can't wait to read.
A lifelong Washingtonian, Carl joins CMDC as a volunteer mediator and outreach team member. He works in mental health, with a Support Program designed to help individuals identify and address barriers that keep them from progressing in their personal life, and in the evenings he works as a violence interrupter. In his spare time he loves amusement parks, sports and spending time with family. Carl is passionate about volunteering with CMDC because he wants to help as much as possible with settling any type of issue people may have.
Monique is a volunteer mediator and outreach team member with CMDC. Her favorite distractions are The Moth podcast, another cup of licorice tea, and hide-and-seek with her moody pup, Zoey. Monique looks forward to her next old school games night with friends, or anyone, really.
Renee is a Buffalo, NY native who thinks DC winters are kind of wimpy. She volunteers with CMDC on the Outreach team. She became interested in mediation and conflict resolution after joining a 13 person intentional community in Takoma Park. In her free time, Renee loves cooking vegan food, contra dancing, and reading memoirs and self-help books.

Our Story

We began as two strangers in a Lyft ride. Now we are a city-wide movement empowering communities to resolve conflicts.

Community Mediation DC (CMDC) kickstarted when Founding Director, Caroline Cragin, shared a dream with a friendly neighbor giving her a Lyft downtown. She told Karlus (KC) that she wanted to equip DC residents with more tools to solve their own conflicts. She believed in offering mediation in our community and training mediators from our community. Ultimately, she wished to create a community mediation organization in Washington, D.C. Inspired, KC, was all in.

CMDC Core Team Members and Volunteers at first Retreat in January, 2018

Next door in Maryland, community mediation centers have flourished throughout the state under Community Mediation Maryland. CMDC brings community mediation to the District. The initial Lyft conversation quickly evolved into multiple partnerships. Within a few months, a passionate group of trained mediators and community leaders joined together in May 2017 to launch a full-fledged movement.

CMDC emerged from a radical idea: trust communities in the District to resolve their own conflicts. Everyone faces conflict. At home. In the neighborhood. In the workplace. We believe that community members already have the strength, knowledge, and resources to resolve these conflicts. The missing link is collaboration.

CMDC offers an opportunity to collaborate. CMDC provides free mediation and conflict resolution education to individuals of all backgrounds within the city. Our mediation process is designed to give every person a voice. Our highly-trained mediators work with people to break down barriers and create solutions to conflict.

CMDC and Maryland volunteer mediators after completing our 45-hour Basic Mediation Training in May, 2018

As a mediation program, CMDC is unique. CMDC is the only mediation center in the District detached from the court system. Every person in the District has access to community mediation. Only CMDC trains volunteer mediators from diverse backgrounds. And only CMDC actively joins with communities to build a more peaceful city.

Since our humble beginnings, we have been building strong community partners, engaging neighborhoods, and welcoming many dedicated volunteers. April 2018 marked our first mediation in the District. By June 2018, we celebrated training our first cohort of DC mediators. Our movement grows passionately as we remain committed to building strong, peaceful communities.

 

The Ten Point Model of Community Mediation

Community mediation provides a non-profit framework for assuring access to mediation services at the community level with control and responsibility for dispute resolution maintained in the community. As a part of CMDC's commitment to community mediation, we strive to meet the Ten Points below:

  1. Train community members - who reflect the community’s diversity with regard to age, race, gender identity, ethnicity, income and education to serve as volunteer mediators.
  2. Provide mediation services at no cost or on a sliding scale.
  3. Hold mediations in neighborhoods where disputes occur.
  4. Schedule mediations at a time and place convenient to the participants.
  5. Encourage early use of mediation to prevent violence or to reduce the need for court intervention, as well as provide mediation at any stage in a dispute.
  6. Mediate community-based disputes that come from referral sources including self-referrals, police, courts, community organizations, civic groups, religious institutions, government agencies and others.
  7. Educate community members about conflict resolution and mediation.
  8. Maintain high quality mediators by providing intensive, skills-based training, apprenticeships, continuing education and ongoing evaluation of volunteer mediators.
  9. Work with the community in governing community mediation programs in a manner that is based on collaborative problem solving among staff, volunteers and community members.
  10. Provide mediation, education, and potentially other conflict resolution processes to community members who reflect the community's diversity with regard to age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, income, education, and neighborhood.

A group of stakeholders throughout the state of Maryland, in collaboration with the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) met several times to develop these guidelines.  The guidelines have evolved into the standard by which all community mediation centers strive to operate in Maryland and beyond.