Framingham Court Mediation Services, Inc. (FCMS) is an independent non-profit
agency with a governing board of directors. The FCMS Dispute Resolution Center
was established in 1979 with a federal grant from the Department of Justice
and administered by the MA Committee on Criminal Justice as a court/community
mediation project in the Framingham District Court.
In 1981, FCMS incorporated
as an independent non-profit organization serving towns and communities in
the Framingham, Marlborough, Natick, and Concord District Court areas to provide
mediation as a method for resolving differences to prevent escalating criminal
behavior, especially between parties who are known to each other. Working in
cooperation with the Office of the Attorney General and with
the support of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and the
Massachusetts Trial Court, FCMS is committed to the use of
trained community mediators as the primary provider of
direct mediation services.
Access to services is available to the public
through self-referral, as well as to court-involved people through court referral. FCMS provides mediation services to clients regardless of their ability to
pay and strives to reduce barriers to service including physical, language,
ethnicity, programmatic and economic barriers.
PROVIDERS OF:
Direct Services We provide a range of
alternative dispute resolution services including, mediation, facilitation
at the earliest stage of conflict, arbitration, case evaluation, and mini
trials.
Mediator Training We offer a basic 36-hour mediator training sequence; advanced mediator training; training
for 'trainers of mediation'; comprehensive school mediation training (including,
administration, pupil personnel services staff, and students); development,
training, and implementation of ADR mechanisms for business and industry.
Consultation We offer consultation on
the development and implementation of ADR mechanism for management teams,
and human resource personnel for business and industry.
