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International Women’s Day 2025
This Saturday, 8th March, marks International Women’s Day. During my time working with the Scottish Community Mediation Centre, I have met many women who have gone on to become mediators. One of the discussions in our training courses is the importance of showing empathy with a client in distress. Demonstrating empathy, along with the personal skills that enable a mediator to break down barriers between themselves and their clients, is something I have seen many women in our training demonstrate exceptionally well.
Whenever I meet a group of mediators or work with a new intake of learners, it is clear that this type of work attracts women. Often, they form the majority in the room. Clearly, there are skills, qualities, and values that contribute to becoming a good mediator, and these can make mediation an appealing career for women. However, this does not mean that all female mediators share the same approach. I recall one close colleague who loved nothing more than a good argument. For her, debating a point helped clarify her thinking, refine her reasoning, and shape the best way to present her perspective. For this particular mediator, engaging in debate was not about conflict, but about achieving greater understanding.
Accreditation: Two years on
Accreditation: Two years on
It is now almost two years since we gained Accreditation by Scottish mediation for our Mediation Skills course. Reflecting back on that time, there was both a sense of celebration and completion. Celebration of achieving this standard, and a sense of completing the whole process, from initial introduction to application, to observations, interview and final assessment. As anyone who has been through an accreditation process knows, there was much paperwork to put together. However within that process there was also a lot of reflection of why we do things a particular way. This opportunity - to refresh our thinking of how and why we do things - proved to be helpful.
I regularly talk about the evolution of our training as being divided up into time into two time periods - before COVID and after COVID. However, the truth is much more complex. Living in an ever-changing world, how we provide a good and useful set of training courses constantly evolves. Our experience of gaining accreditation two years ago provided us with the opportunity to challenge ourselves and to reflect on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.
Spotlight on our Service
This month, the spotlight is on the East Ayrshire Council’s Vibrant Communities service.
East Ayrshire is characterised by strong and active local communities, spread across a diverse urban and rural landscape. 120,300 people live in East Ayrshire in 55,400 households. 47% of the population (56,418 people) live in East Ayrshire’s largest town, Kilmarnock. 17% of the population are 0-15 years old; 62% of the population are 16-64 years old; 12% of the population are 65-74; and, 9% of the population are 75+. The population projection between 2018 and 2028 in East Ayrshire is set to decrease by 1.7%, in contrast to 1.8% increase across Scotland. Within East Ayrshire, we are expecting to see a 16% decrease of people living in the rural south of our authority and a 13% increase of those living in the urban north of our authority. This will see a projection in 2028 of 0-15 years old down 7.5 %; 16-64 years old down 0.8%; Age 65-74 up 0.3%; and, age 75+ up 25.3%. 10.9% of people live in the least deprived SIMD quantile [1], whilst 30.6% live in the most deprived quantile.
Vibrant Communities was born in 2013 and has evolved greatly since, throughout the evolution it has always kept true to working ‘with and for’ our local communities rather than ‘doing to’ them. Vibrant Communities is made up of Community Learning & Development, Housing Support, Early Intervention and Home Link Services. Our Communities Team, which is responsible for capacity building, community development and engagement across the Council has a full staff team of dual trained community workers and qualified mediators. When new staff come into the team they are put through extensive mediation training via Scottish Community Mediation Centre and Sacro.
Time to Talk Day 2025
To mark Time to Talk day the Scottish Community Mediation Centre puts a spotlight on neighbour disputes and mental health.
Talk with neighbour or community mediators around Scotland, and eventually you will hear about the rise amongst their clients of mental health issues in the past few years. There may be a range of contributing factors, from increased social isolation through to how we view the world around us. But whatever the causes may be, when two neighbours are in conflict, the impact of this conflict on their lives and those closest to them often includes their mental health.
In thriving communities, neighbours will often positively engage with each other, look out for one another and talk through any difficulties that they may have between them in a practical and peaceful way. Where those connections, those relationships, have not been built the danger is that a difficulty between two neighbours becomes not just a source of conflict, but something that impacts on their mental health.
In Scotland, disputes about noise have been the single largest type of dispute that community mediators come across regularly. The impact of noise on someone’s quality of living, their relationships around them and their sleep can be significant.
Service Spotlight: January 2025
Family and Community Mediation Argyll & Bute
Our service has been mediating in Argyll & Bute since 2004, throughout this time we have supported many families through times of crisis.
We are the second largest local authority area in Scotland with a vast area of 690,946 hectares that consists of four main regions: Bute & Cowal, Oban/Lorn & Isles, Mid Argyll/Kintyre & Islands and Helensburgh & Lomond. 47.2% is classed as rural, this area includes 28 inhabited islands with an total population of 85,953.
We have continually offered both in-person and online mediation as a rule due to the region’s demographics. Although, online mediation came to the forefront in 2020 after the first lockdown. All mediators received additional training to accommodate the demand for online mediation during this difficult time.
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