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FR:     ACR HAWAII BOARD OF DIRECTORS

RE:      VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE TO WINDWARD NEIGHBORHOOD BOARDS

DATE: MAY 11, 2018

 “Come, my friends, ‘tis not too late to seek a newer world.”

Dear Friends and Members:

The ACR Hawaii Board is considering offering pro bono peacemaking and facilitation services to three Neighborhood Boards on the Windward side of Oahu—Waimanalo, Kaneohe, and Kahaluu. We want to know if you will be a part of this proposed project to assist these Boards in providing a safe and peaceful environment for conducting community-wide facilitations regarding challenging—and often contentious—public policy issues. These public policy issues may include vacation rentals, homelessness, and our island’s ability to host ever-increasing numbers of tourists, just to name a few controversial issues.

On an experimental basis, ACR Hawaii members are presently providing pro bono peacemaking and facilitation services to the Kailua Neighborhood Board’s Subcommittee on Homelessness. Although this Kailua project is an ongoing experiment, the feedback from participants and co-chairs of the Subcommittee has been most complimentary. They have praised the vital assistance provided by our ACR volunteers to the community, and assisting Subcommittee participants in having a reasoned, non-conflicted dialogue regarding solutions to homelessness in Kailua.

The ACR Board’s thinking is that we peacemakers can be of critical assistance in helping to frame and facilitate difficult community conversations on very important public matters. We are living in political and social times in which conversations among community members are often inefficient and inconclusive at best and tribal and hostile at worst. Such dysfunctional community conversations have contributed to the often-political gridlock and indecisiveness of our public officials on critical issues facing all of us. It is long past the time when we peacemakers need to step up and offer our skills, expertise, and good energy to help move our communities in the direction of dialogue, respectful disagreement, and solutions that we can all live with concerning issues of vital community importance.

Presently there are 65 members in our organization. If a significant number of you volunteer, we will contact the Neighborhood Boards and other public officials to offer our services.

Will you help be a part of the solution to our society’s need to resolve pressing social and political issues by offering your skills and energy to this project? Those of you who volunteer, who have the passion and energy for our project, yet feel that they lack the necessary skills and experience, will be matched with some of our very professionally experienced members to provide the needed peacemaking and facilitation services requested by the Neighborhood Boards. You will thus be getting very valuable hands-on training and experience from participating in this project. This mentoring and training will pay large dividends in your future professional careers as peacemakers. You will also be rewarded with the very fulfilling experience of doing good for others, which is no small matter. Further, you will be advancing the profession of peacemaking in the 21^st century, which will also redound to your professional benefit in the future.

In his famous speech in South Africa in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy stated that social change occurs from small “ripples of activism.” The activism that RFK proposed is a result of the work of many individuals and in numerous places, and when such momentous activism is taken collectively, the result is a veritable tidal wave of progressive change. Please join us in being a part of this tidal wave of progressive change. This is what participatory democracy is all about.

For further information, please contact:

Tom DiGrazia @ digraziat001@gmail.com (1-808-262-0770)

Watch on ʻŌlelo:

5/1/2018 10:00AM OLELO49
5/2/2018 1:30 PM OLELO49
5/3/2018 2:00 PM OLELO49
5/4/2018 6:00 PM OLELO49

Indigenous conflict resolution practices, including hoʻoponopono and native peacemaking, have been utilized by both Native Hawaiian and Native American groups to address conflict in families and the greater community. A distinguished panel of legal academics, practitioners, and peacemakers probes the possibilities and implications of integrating indigenous conflict resolution practices in the practice of law and the court system.

See the flyer: Indigenous Conflict Resolution – OLELO AIRDATES May 1- 4, 2018

Sponsored by:
Accord 3.0  (Refreshments courtesy of Accord 3.0)
Hawaii State Judiciary Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution
The College of Social Sciences at The University of Hawaii at Manoa
The Mediation Center of the Pacific
Pacific Gateway Center

What are the Issues?

The immigration issue affects virtually every American, directly or indirectly, often in deeply personal ways. This guide is designed to help people deliberate together about how we should approach the issue. The three options presented here reflect different ways of understanding what is at stake and force us to think about what matters most to us when we face difficult problems that involve all of us and that do not have perfect solutions.

The issue raises a number of difficult questions, and there are no easy answers. The concerns that underlie this issue are not confined to party affiliation, nor are they captured by labels like “conservative” or “liberal.”

The research involved in developing the guide included interviews and conversations with Americans from all walks of life, as well as surveys of nonpartisan public-opinion research, subject-matter scans, and reviews of initial drafts by people with direct experience with the subject.

WHEN: April 4, 2018
TIME: 5:00 – 5:30 Registration & Refreshments  •  5:30 – 7:30 FORUM
WHERE: Hawaii State Capitol, 4555 S. Beretania St., Room 225
COST: FREE

RSVP: Please register by March 16, 2018. Click here for the Eventbrite Link. 

Download the Flyer

QUESTIONS: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, UHM Phone: 956-7381
For more information go to: Coming to America Issues Guide

Free Moderator Training

Monday April 2, 2018 5-7:30pm

University of Hawaii, Saunders Hall Rm 116

In preparation for the “Coming To America” Forum on April 4, you are also invited to join a moderator training in facilitating community dialogue on critical issues. This is an opportunity to build your skills as a group facilitator at a time when coming together to reason and talk about our common problems could not be more important.

Quick Tips for Mediators

 Robert Lillis is the current President of IAM & AW LL in Honolulu.  He is also Vice Chair Labor Education Advisory Council, University of Hawai‘i-West Oahu. Robert works as a Marine Machinery Mechanic at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.  He is a 6-year veteran of the US Navy qualified Nuclear Power, Submarine Service. He is certified Department of Navy Mediator with over 70 completed Mediations and has been representing federal employees for over 25 years.

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Through the Association for Conflict Resolution, Hawai‘i Chapter, you can…

Meet – Network with other colleagues in the Hawai‘i conflict resolution community

Be Informed – Receive regular updates by posts and email on local conflict resolution seminars, webinars, symposium, training projects, and National ACR events

Publish – Submit your research, articles and videos about conflict resolution for possible publication to share with the world at ACR Hawai‘i website

Develop – Got an interesting project/concept in mind to enhance the conflict resolution field? Perhaps ACR Hawai‘i can give you a hand by sponsoring it. Two projects currently sponsored by ACR Hawai‘i are Ceeds of Peace– A 360º Approach to Raising Peacebuilders and Virtual Mediation Lab – Free Online Mediation Skills Development & Training in Online Mediation

Our Mission – To promote and support peaceful conflict resolution and collaborative decision making at all levels in our society whether in our home, school, ohana, workplace, or community. We are mediators, arbitrators, facilitators, educators, social workers, lawyers, psychologists, child and family advocates, problem solvers, and concerned citizens – all dedicated to the pursuit of peace.

2:00 – 4:15 PM

Ali‘iolani Hale (Supreme Court Building)

Supreme Court Conference Room

Panelists: Malia Akutagawa, Laulani Teale (haku), Yuklin Aluli, Shawn Watts, Laurie Tochiki (Moderator)

Sponsored and hosted by the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution-Hawai‘i State Judiciary in partnership with the Columbia School of Law Mediation Clinic, the Association for Conflict Resolution-Hawai‘i, the Hawai‘i State Bar Association-ADR Section, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Mediation Center of the Pacific

For more information call CADR 539-4237 or email cadr@courts.hawaii.gov