Quabbin Mediation

CONTACT:

13 South Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
978-544-6142
www.quabbinmediation.org

Sharon Tracy, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Here is an example of how a benefit program broadens to meet needs and desires of its constituency. QM was founded in 1995 to mediate disputes and teach violence-prevention skills in the North Quabbin region -- a poor and troubled rural area north of the Quabbin Reservoir (Boston's water supply). QM works with high-risk youth, some in court-ordered programs, teaching them creative conflict-resolution skills and training them to pass these skills on to their peers.

The teens themselves have helped invent a new program to address positively some of the root problems they face: poverty, hunger, and alienation between generations. The teens undertook a Seeds of Leadership Garden, to grow and market their own crops for income production, as well as to donate food to hungry people and flowers to nursing homes. It was so successful, it spun off to become its own project of an organization called Seeds of Solidarity Farm. Quabbin Mediation continues developing innovative youth programs with a focus on non-violence and creative problem solving.

(1998: HUMAN SERVICES: Children and Youth: General)