A year and one month ago Sabine Walsh posted on this blog her report on the first Mediation Awareness Week in Ireland. The MAW has in fact a much longer history; for example, in Southern California it has already been in existence for 12 years. However, in some countries, including Argentina and the UK, local MAWs will be staged this year for the first time ever (or at least officially for the first time – on a large scale). I thought it would be pertinent to raise AWARENESS among our readers about this year’s edition of the MAW, and hence to aim to promote the MAW idea even more internationally. If you are reading this blog and are AWARE of the Mediation Awareness Week activities which you would like to be promoted, please feel free to use the comments space just below this post to publish brief news along with hyperlinks.
The basic idea behind the MAW is that highlighting the benefits of mediation, and growing awareness, knowledge and use of mediation can never be done enough. It is still true that the biggest challenge for mediation is that people are generally not aware of its existence, and when they do know about it, there are misunderstandings.
MAW is a week of events and information aimed at spreading the word about mediation, and de-mystifying the process. During this week, mediators from community groups, professional bodies, educational establishments, public bodies and family interest groups devote their time to helping the public understand what mediation is and the important role it can play in resolving disputes between individuals, businesses and community organisations.
SPREAD THE WORD, IT’S MAW!
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