Conflict and Change is a community mediation organisation that runs programmes in local schools and youth centres focusing on the development of non-violent communication and conflict resolution skills. Our overall aim is to enable children, young people and the adults who work with them, both inside and outside the school environment, to develop the skills required for sustaining healthy and positive relationships.

Over the past years we have worked in more than forty primary and secondary schools in Newham. We also have worked in many schools outside the borough of Newham. As part of this work the organisation has developed diversity workshops in primary schools. These sessions aim to encourage children to value each other's faiths and cultures and to work together on joint projects. The Valuing Diversity programme helps children and adults explore issues around identity, culture and communication. Conflict and Change has also produced resources to support teachers in continuing this work in the classroom.

The organisation also regularly delivers courses such as 'Conflict Resolution & Mediation Skills', 'Communication and Culture', 'Setting Up a Peer Mediation Scheme In Your School' and a 'Training of Trainers' course at the LEA's Credon Centre for Learning Mentors and other school staff from Newham and from outside the borough. The last three courses are being delivered for the first time during the spring and summer terms of 2006.

A new project in secondary schools is currently under development. It entails working with young people from different gangs, divided along community and religious lines. The initiative will work with three groups of young men, Bangladeshi and Pakistani, White and Black and Tamil. Activities are run with each group separately and then they are brought together within a 'Public Conversation' model used for multi-party mediation. Another project underway is the development of a Newham wide forum for young people engaged in local schools' various conflict resolution programmes.

Project type

• Conflict resolution

Region

• London