What is Negotiation Help?

Negotiation help is help to sort out issues with other people and other organisations. 

The service has been established and fully run by volunteers who freely offer their professional services to those who have been negatively impacted by natural disasters or other hardship.

Negotiation is the process of having a discussion aimed at reaching agreement. 

Sometimes our volunteers may act as an advocate speaking on the behalf of people who can’t speak for themselves. Sometimes they may act as a facilitator in either a formal mediation process, as a coach or support person if the process is being run by someone else or assist you to have a  less formal facilitated conversation.

What sort of help?

Helping out after the fires and other natural disasters

Mediation Institute has initiated a volunteer group of mediators, Family
Group Conference Facilitators and Family Dispute Resolution
Practitioners to help out after natural disasters and other situtations of individual hardship. 

Our goal is to help with negotiations for people who are struggling.

That may relate to negotiations with their insurance companies, banks,
local, state or federal government departments, neighbours or whoever.

It may also relate to services such as relationship mediation or Family Dispute Resolution to help with renegotiating parenting agreements following forced moves or relationship breakdowns.

Members of the volunteer panel who are qualified to offer legal advice or counselling services are encouraged to do so as well.

What to do

If you are a qualified mediator let us know if you are willing to volunteer. 

• We have started a volunteer page on the Mi Website – https://www.mediationinstitute.edu.au/volunteer-negotiation-services/
• We have started a Facebook Group which provides a place to share information about resources, ask for help and share stories – https://www.facebook.com/groups/NegotiationHelp/
• We will set up a Volunteer Page on the Interact Support website similar to the one on the Mi Website for volunteers qualified to help with family
  law related negotiations
• We are offering a 50% discount on the Transformative Relationship
  Mediation course for anyone who is a volunteer who would like to upskill
  in this area.  Contact us for the coupon code.
• If you are not a Mediation Institute member we need a photo and a brief
  bio to add a profile for you on the volunteer register.  Contact Us. Only NMAS Mediators, Certified FGC Facilitators who are members of Mi or another association or Accredited FDRP’s are being accepted. We want to make sure that vulnerable people are safe from exploitation by only working with people who have met good character requirements and have independent complaint handling services in place.

  Please be aware that we will be accepting complaints about Volunteers, if any are made, and considering whether there is conduct that brings the industry into disrepute. Your ethical obligations apply even if you are not specifically providing mediation services.
  

If you are not qualified yet but would like to help we need:

• Moderators for the Facebook group
• Volunteers to update the volunteer registers on the Mi and Interact Support websites (intermediate skills in wordpress required)
• Connectors to spread the word about the volunteer Negotiation Help program, let us know about programs, resources, grants and other support services we can connect people to (we don’t want to re-invent the wheel just want to make sure the wheels are turning)
• Download the poster and share it on socials, print it and put it up, design a better poster or other shareable images.