Community Boards

Community Boards is a community-based mediation program established in San Francisco, California, in 1976 by Raymond Shonholtz. Rather than treating neighborhood disputes primarily as matters for courts, lawyers, or formal administrative agencies, the program places local residents at the center of conflict resolution. Volunteer mediators are recruited from the neighborhoods they serve, giving the process a degree of community knowledge and representation that conventional legal mechanisms may lack. The program works with people involved in disagreements ranging from interpersonal and neighborhood conflicts to disputes that may damage relationships or create longer-term divisions within a community. Its objective is not limited to producing a settlement. Community Boards presents mediation as a way to resolve the immediate disagreement, restore communication, and reduce the likelihood that a rift will continue or spread. Supporters have associated this approach with broader goals including tolerance, acceptance, civic participation, and social justice. A distinctive element of the model is its case-development process. Case developers contact potential participants in person and encourage them to consider mediation. Participation depends on the parties' consent. Once they agree to take part, the dispute is generally handled by a panel of approximately three volunteer mediators rather than by a single professional adjudicator. The panel helps the participants discuss the conflict and work toward an agreement that they can accept voluntarily. Community Boards is positioned at the less formal end of the community-mediation spectrum. Its philosophy emphasizes direct community involvement and self-determined outcomes instead of binding judgments. Mediators have characterized agreements as dependent on the parties' goodwill and voluntary compliance, rather than on the coercive enforcement mechanisms associated with court orders or formal legal contracts. This makes the program particularly focused on relationship repair and community healing, although it also distinguishes it from legally enforceable dispute-resolution processes. Beginning in 1982, Community Boards also promoted peer mediation in K–12 schools. This work extended the program's principles beyond neighborhood disputes by introducing students to collaborative conflict management and helping schools develop internal methods for addressing disagreements. The available reference material does not establish the organization's current operating structure, leadership, funding, website, or geographic activity beyond its San Francisco origins and community-mediation mission.

Community Boards was established in San Francisco in 1976 by Raymond Shonholtz as a community-based mediation program. Its founding model responded to the idea that many neighborhood and interpersonal conflicts could be addressed more constructively through local participation than through immediate reliance on courts or other formal legal institutions. The program recruited volunteer mediators from the neighborhoods in which disputes occurred. This local recruitment principle was intended to make mediators familiar with community conditions and representative of the people and concerns involved. Community Boards developed a case-management approach in which case developers made personal contact with potential participants, explained the mediation process, and encouraged the parties to consent to taking part. After consent was obtained, disputes were generally presented to a panel of about three mediators. The panel's role was to help participants communicate, understand the conflict, and reach an arrangement they could accept. The model placed substantial weight on repairing relationships and preventing continuing community divisions, rather than merely determining fault or imposing a legally binding remedy. Community Boards has been described as occupying one of the least formal positions among community-mediation models. Its agreements were understood to depend on the parties' goodwill and voluntary compliance, rather than enforcement through a court or another coercive legal mechanism. This approach reflected the program's broader theory that mediation can contribute to tolerance, acceptance, social connection, and social justice in addition to resolving the immediate case. In 1982, Community Boards expanded its educational activity by promoting peer mediation programs in K–12 schools. School-based peer mediation brought students into the conflict-resolution process and applied the program's collaborative principles in an educational setting. The initiative represented an extension of Community Boards' civic and community-building orientation. The supplied reference material does not provide enough information to document later organizational changes, current leadership, financial structure, present-day operations, or the continuation of specific programs. Accordingly, the historical record here focuses on the documented founding model, mediation method, and school-based peer-mediation work.

• 1982

  Expansion into K–12 peer mediation

  [1]Community Boardsen.wikipedia.org

  Community Boards began promoting peer mediation programs in primary and secondary schools, extending its conflict-resolution model into education.

• 1976

  Community Boards established in San Francisco

  [1]Community Boardsen.wikipedia.org

  Raymond Shonholtz founded Community Boards as a community-based mediation program using local volunteers to help residents address disputes.

A community-centered, consent-based alternative to formal legal dispute resolution, emphasizing local volunteer participation, relationship repair, voluntary compliance, and broader civic and social goals.

• Mediation service · 1976

  Community mediation

  The core service helps people involved in neighborhood or interpersonal disagreements communicate and seek a mutually acceptable resolution. Participation is consent-based, and the process is facilitated by a panel, usually consisting of about three volunteer mediators drawn from local communities. The intended result includes both settlement of the immediate dispute and repair of the relationship.

• Conflict-resolution support · 1976

  Case development and participant outreach

  Community Boards uses case developers to make personal contact with potential parties before mediation begins. This outreach function encourages participation, explains the possibility of mediation, and helps move a dispute from initial referral toward a voluntary process involving the people directly affected.

• Educational program · 1982

  K–12 school-based peer mediation

  Beginning in 1982, Community Boards promoted peer mediation in K–12 schools. The program applied collaborative conflict-resolution principles in school communities and involved students in addressing disputes, linking mediation practice with civic learning and relationship building.

1. 1Community Boardsen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Community Mediation: A Handbook for Practitioners and Researchersbooks.google.com