VMP Facilitation Services

Are people not listening and understanding each other?
Are meetings taking too long and not accomplishing much?
Are some group members not able or willing to participate fully?
Have people left the group after disagreements or problems in a meeting?
If any of these are true for you, then a facilitator from Village Mediation may be able to help.

Often when people hear Village Mediation they think of conflicts or problems between individuals, but the Village Mediation Program offers other services as well including group facilitation. A facilitator assists a group with meetings, so the group members can be full participants in the discussion.

Facilitators will...

• Develop a process with the help of the group to meet the group’s needs
• Work with the group to create guidelines for a productive process
• Remain neutral and will keep information about your group confidential

Facilitation can be helpful for groups because...

• Time will be used more effectively
• The group will stay focused on what it wants to accomplish
• People who haven’t participated will have the opportunity
• A few people will not be able to control the discussion
• People can be heard even in groups where there are lots of different opinions

Facilitators have many "tools" to help groups. A facilitator can...

• Keep track of who’s turn it is to speak next and call on people to speak
• Listen for key points and lift them up to be noticed and discussed
• Help the group develop guidelines for interaction
• Take notes on newsprint for the whole group to see
• Use a round robin method to get input from all present
• Facilitate brainstorming
• Assist with priority setting
• Point out areas which seem to get a group “bogged down”
• Help build a process for generating options or action planning
• Offer alternative decision making options (scoring, priority voting, etc.)

Why chose a facilitator from VMP?

This valuable, free service is available to groups in our community. The facilitators are neutral and keep information confidential.

Contact the Mediation Program at 767-7701 or mediation(at)yso.com

Mediation Program Links
VMP Home | Mediation | Facilitation