Chris M Langley
My supervisor at the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center was Iris Gibson. For a number of years, Iris’ main role has been the Development and Outreach Coordinator for the WDRC. She is also the main assistant to Leah Macaluso, the Supervised Visitation Program Coordinator of the organization. The WDRC has many volunteers every year that sign up to help the organization in various ways. Iris is in charge of facilitating the volunteering program for the WDRC, while continuing to grow its volunteer support base. This program is important because volunteers help keep administrative costs to a minimum. Donations to the WDRC will go more efficiently to keeping the WDRC’s services more accessible as a result of volunteers like myself. In addition to Iris’ everyday tasks, one of her biggest responsibilities is assigning me and the other volunteers with tasks to complete. She supervised my work and did an excellent job at guiding me when I needed assistance. Her other accomplishments in the WDRC have included strategic planning, outreach marketing, building relationships with community organizations and raising significant revenue by managing a number of fundraising events.
To all those who live in Bellingham, have you ever wondered if there is an organization where you can settle a civil dispute besides the court room? Have you ever wondered if there is a place you can receive coaching on how to handle conflicts better? Well, you are in luck, because such a place exists in Whatcom County. The Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center is a professional organization that provides comprehensive mediation and conflict management services to the public. The organization aims to offer conflict prevention, intervention and resolution to individuals, families, businesses and organizations in Whatcom County. In doing this, their objective is to create a more peaceful Whatcom County. Their objective is nicely stated in the company’s vision: “for Whatcom County to be a community in which people approach conflict in creative and healthy ways” (whatcomdrc.org). The organization strives to achieve this objective through their goals, which are stated in their mission statement: “to provide and promote constructive and collaborative approaches to conflict through mediation, training, facilitation and community education” (whatcomdrc.org). Through facilitation, mediation and coaching services, The WDRC helps people of all ages manage conflict in a responsible manner. They also help people build skills and teach them to learn new ways to reduce and minimalize the possibility of unproductive conflict to occur in the first place.
The organization is growing. In 2015, the organization served 10,252 people, a 195% increase since 2010. The WDRC mediated 342 cases last year. In addition, they had 897 mediation participants, 896 youth program participants and 1,668 adult workshop participants (whatcomdrc.org). The WDRC frees up the court systems from cases. In addition, the WDRC saved the Whatcom County Court System $507,750.
