The Spaulding Foundation has awarded a grant to Children’s Law Center, Inc. (CLC) for the creation of a Child-Centered Mediation Program that will assist parties involved in high-conflict custody disputes.
The Program’s goal, while focusing on the children involved, is to reduce family conflict resulting from custody and parenting time disputes and thereby reduce the long-term negative effects on children’s mental health and well-being.
Parties who participate in the program are referred to CLC by the Family Court Judge.
Upon referral, psychological professionals will conduct a mental health and trauma-informed family assessment of the parties involved and CLC attorneys will conduct a legal assessment to help the parties become educated about family conflict and the mediation process.
CLC will initially partner with Jean Deters, Psy.D. in performing the assessment and mediation services.
Dr. Deters and CLC will work together to help the parties come to a well-informed custody and parenting agreement regarding their children’s well-being and will help them understand the psychological repercussions children suffer from protracted parental feuds.
The program launched on July 1 and is funded for a full year. There is no fee to the parties for this service, parties are referred by the Family Court, and participation is voluntary.
