An exciting new research initiative has been launched by Canadian Ambassador Kevin Vickers in South County Dublin, offering means-tested family mediation to parents and their children in their communities. Ambassador Vicker’s presence reflected the support-from and exchange of ideas-with Canadian mediators and judges that have informed our research project to date.
The team aim to provide an appointment within 10 days and the service is being offered in four Family Resource Centres. The issues that can be mediated are Guardianship, Custody, Access and Maintenance. Mediators from Dublin Community Mediation, led by coordinator John Mulligan, will provide the service at each of the Family Resource Centres.
To be eligible the participants must each have a gross income of less than € 22,000, and have less than € 5,000 in savings. Fees are charged at € 25 per hour but can be lowered in cases of financial hardship. The project offers bi-gender co-mediation, and skype sessions, where one participant is geographically distant in Ireland, or residing in another country.
Launch of the Family Mediation Project in May 2018
The Family Mediation Project is a not-for-profit and means-tested research initiative, by Waterford Institute of Technology, based on a family mediation model developed by Dr Roisin O’ Shea, following her doctoral research at W.I.T. on the Family law courts, which was funded by the Irish Research Council and published in 2014. The project led by W.I.T.’s Dr Sinead Conneely (coordinator) and Dr Roisin O’ Shea (principal investigator is test-running a new and highly-structured family mediation process, based on developments in family mediation internationally, and is gathering anonymised data to prove that the new process works.
Mediation for parents and their children, or Grandparents and their children and grandchildren, is now available through Quarryvale Family Resource Centre tel; 01 6230264, Killinarden Family Resource Centre tel; 01 4527143, St Kevin’s Family Resource Centre Tel; 01 4627149 and Ballyboden Family Resource Centre tel; 01 4935953.
Call or drop into any of the four FRCs to find out more.