The Community Mediation Center Grant Program (CMC Grant Program) is administered by the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) to advance the public mission of community mediation in the Commonwealth and allocate state operational funding to qualified Massachusetts community mediation centers.

Community mediation is a proven conflict resolution and prevention mechanism that increases access to justice for low-income and marginalized populations and builds community capacity, relationships and social capital. Community mediation centers serve as the primary trainers of mediators in the private and public sectors and as the prime innovators in conflict resolution programs for communities.

The goals of the CMC Grant Program are:

• to broaden access to dispute resolution for all Massachusetts residents by promoting community mediation as an affordable public service;
• to provide a consistent, stable funding source for centers with performance based public accountability to avoid uncertainty and instability of center operations;
• to promote diversified funding sources for longer term center sustainability.

The Program was built on findings and recommendations from the Legislative Study: A Framework to Strengthen Massachusetts Community Mediation as a Cost-Effective Public Service, conducted by MOPC in November 2011.  The Program’s eligibility criteria and performance-based grant distribution system were adapted from a successful working model at Maryland’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO). The Massachusetts version was developed by MOPC to achieve incentivized growth and diversification of funding.  The CMC Grant Program provides a sustainable funding framework that enables investment in existing and new community mediation programming and infrastructure.

To read about the most recent grant awards click here.