GOOD SHEPHERD MEDIATION PROGRAM seeks to "encourage peace, justice and reconciliation through mediation and other peaceful dispute resolution processes." Working with the police, courts and other agencies, it offers conflict resolution training and consulting services, including school-based peer mediation, family, neighborhood and criminal mediation, anger management, meeting facilitation, and community building. It also conducts a novel "Peace Theater."
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES CATHOLIC SCHOOL is an ethnically diverse parish school with an award-winning "Peace Program" that teaches pupils conflict resolution and peer mediation. The centerpiece is the "Peace Room," where students with disputes of any nature are asked to sit at a table to mediate their differences. The school also has sponsored an after-school "Peace Club" and maintained a "Peace Wall" where photos of students embracing the ideals of the program are featured. St. Francis's student body has children from more than 25 different countries, many of them recent immigrants who are not Catholic.
THE WEED & SEED STRATEGY is a federally funded initiative to assist neighborhoods destabilized by violent crime, drug and gang activity. One of its notable efforts is Peacemaker, a violence-reduction program focusing on youngsters aged 9 to 12. It consists of small rap sessions, workshops and retreats. Participants get "Peace Dollars" for nonviolent acts they have done during the week, redeemable for items at the Peacemaker store.
THE JEWISH DIALOGUE GROUP is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization formed in Philadelphia in 2001 to promote "constructive dialogue within Jewish communities about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other controversial issues." It offers dialogue sessions, workshops and trainings to help people talk across political differences in useful. In 2007, the group plans to offer dialogue sessions and trainings in other cities around North America.
THE INTERFAITH CENTER OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA was founded in 2004 to promote broad dialogue, education and immersion experiences. It offers models for interfaith dialogue and strategies for defusing inter-religious tension. It engages teens and college students in service to the community, in order to build understanding and trust, bridge differences, and strengthen youth development and identity.
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL has faculty who teach Alternative Dispute Resolution.
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT has faculty who teach "the study of ethnic and religious conflicts, and conflict prevention and resolution."
WEST PHILADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL utilizes a "trial by peers" disciplinary system that takes place in the school's courtroom. Through this initiative, the school hopes to reduce disciplinary problems and allow students the chance to be part of the disciplinary system.
THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, Eastern Pennsylvania Region, has anti-bias programs including the World of Difference Institute, which provide "hands-on training to help children and adults challenge prejudice and discrimination and learn to live and work successfully and civilly in an increasingly diverse world."
