The Mediation Center is a nonprofit United Way agency that houses five different programs: Youth and Victim Offender Mediation, which is a partner agency in the Buncombe County Gang Prevention & Intervention Project, and includes school-based programs; Family Mediation, which offers separation and divorce, custody and visitation, and parenting-agreement mediation; Community Mediation, which provides an alternative to court dispute resolution, and offers group facilitation services as well as conflict-education programs; the Conflict Management Training and Professional Coaching Program, which offers conflict management, mediation and human resources training in addition to conflict coaching for management and business professionals; and Family Visitation, a newly added program of the Mediation Center that will begin July 1 offering supervised exchange and visitation services. As one Asheville High School senior attests, “If not for the mediation program, my graduation would not be happening. It is a great program that only helps.” All Mediation Center programs are offered at either no cost to the participants or on a sliding-scale basis. Info: www.mediatebuncombe.org or 251-6089.
