Jim Moran (left), Robin Amadei and Tamra d’Estrée tour Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where they helped set up a mediation clinic. Jim Moran (left), Robin Amadei and Tamra d’Estrée tour Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where they helped set up a mediation clinic. Jim Moran (left), Robin Amadei and Tamra d’Estrée tour Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where they helped set up a mediation clinic. Photo courtesy of Tamra d’Estrée.
“It’s a win-win.”
This simple phrase can bring tranquility to boardrooms, neighborhoods and across the globe, according to Tamra Pearson d’Estree, director of the Center for Research and Practice in DU’s Conflict Resolution Institute (CRI).
“We see the phrase as a positive cultural shift that has caused people to reexamine how they relate to each other,” d’Estree says. “And that can help relations between people, organizations and eventually nations.”
Indeed, the institute is giving the phrase and many other tools a reach far beyond DU’s backyard to spread the seeds of peace deep in the heart of Europe and elsewhere.
Last fall five institute representatives went to Tbilisi State University in the Republic of Georgia to create internships in conflict resolution so students there could get practical experience.
“They had great classes but no opportunity for experience — not really surprising in the former Soviet bloc where conflict resolution was handled from the top down,” d’Estree says.
The institute also is helping the school create a mediation clinic — similar to the ones in the United States sometimes used in lieu of litigation — that will serve students and the community at low or no cost.
“We know a clinic isn’t going to resolve ethnic differences, but we believe it’s a start in creating knowledge and a culture that can approach conflict in more productive ways,” d’Estree says.
The institute has a track record of success with such ventures. For the last three years, it has been helping the University of West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, to create a master’s degree in conflict resolution and start a new mediation center.
“Things turned out better there than we had imagined,” d’Estree says. “They’ve trained police officers, correctional officers, educators, attorneys and others across many sectors of society.”
Linda Hadeed, coordinator of the mediation studies program at the school, says DU’s help was needed because of “rising levels of violence and spiraling crime” there.
“The program has progressed very well, and we’ve received plenty of positive feedback from those involved,” Hadeed says.
D’Estree says the institute’s goal is not to just go to countries and teach conflict resolution, but to develop “self sustaining” conflict resolution tools that other countries can integrate.
“We learn from them, too. It’s a two-way learning experience,” d’Estree says.
And that may very well be a win-win.