Fairness brings more, Oldenburg addresses everyday life conflicts

Territory

City of Oldenbug (Germany)

Duration “Fairness brings more”

Initiative started in 2001. Beginning of the training of school mediators started in 2002. Support programme “Fairness brings more – sustainable conflict resistant” for schools and mediators in Oldenburg runs from 2010 to 2013.

Background: Positively influence conflict culture

The capacity of teachers and pupils to deal with  conflicts can positively influence the “conflict culture” of a school and can prevent the creation of violence. The capacity to resolve conflict through processes of communication and interaction strengthens the self consciousness and the sense of responsibility and plays an important role for improving the conflict culture. In the same way, being conscious of one’s idea of man and a reflection on one’s own position in society are important elements for being able to deal with conflicts. One the contrary, not taking into account another person’s situation and perspective as well as uncontrolled verbal expression oral can contribute to the escalation of conflicts. People enter into a spiral escalation, of action and reaction and end up in a situation they actually didn’t want to find themselves in.  Mediation as a method to conciliate can play a central role in such a context.

Oldenburg does not know high crime rates but does want to address everyday life conflicts

Oldenburg wasn’t a hotspot for crime or violence. Neither were there particular events that pushed the crime prevention council to action. Nevertheless the working group on schools, which also includes teachers and headmasters, wanted to use the potential of mediation to better address everyday life conflicts, phenomenon of violence and bullying that do exist in the  schools of Oldenburg, too. The Oldenburg crime prevention council has therefore launched in 2001 the initiative “fairness brings more”, in order to make the method of mediation accessible to schools in Oldenburg and to help them to set up active conflict management based on mediation.

Objectives

The overall aim of the initiative “Fairness brings more – mediation at the schools of Oldenburg”  is to initiate conflict management using mediation in schools in Oldenburg and to contribute in this way to violence prevention.
The initiative has 3 operational goals:

1. Training of teachers and social workers as school mediators;
2. Training of pupils as peer-mediators;
3. Establishing a culture of active conflict management using mediation.