National Practitioner Organizations

Hewlett support has been instrumental in the creation and maintenance of an infrastructure of national conflict resolution practitioner organizations, with these groups encouraging conflict resolution and peacemaking across a range of community and institutional settings. In 2004 we will limit support to existing organizations, providing final grants in the most critical areas. 

Our support will focus on planning for organizational development and financial self-sufficiency, knowledge building, the creation of supportive policy frameworks, and enhancing the quality of practitioners and programs. We may also provide technical assistance to selected grantees in the area of organizational effectiveness, especially to those groups receiving final Hewlett grants.  Our goal is to exit the field leaving behind a well-managed and networked set of (primarily) national practitioner organizations, with multiple funding streams and strategic visions and plans leading to continued growth, visibility, and quality of practice in the conflict resolution field.

National practitioner organizations include the major national (and some state or regional) organizations such as the Association for Conflict Resolution, National Association for Community Mediation, Victim Offender Mediation Association, the American Bar Association’s Section on Dispute Resolution, and others.

The array of projects and scope of activities carried out by these organizations is extensive. The National Association for Community Mediation has developed an ongoing regranting program that has significantly impacted local community mediation programs nationwide, assisting with technology acquisition, leadership training, and the seeding of new community-responsive programming. The ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section has developed an important first-of-its-kind annual conference program, network, and resource link for court mediation program managers. The Association for Conflict Resolution supports more than eighteen membership sections (i.e., environmental and public policy, research, family, online, etc.) that create opportunities for peer learning, shared research, and the evolution of best practices and common standards.

Highlights

American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution

Association for Conflict Resolution

National Association of Community Mediation

Conflict Resolution Network Canada

Victim Offender Mediation Association

University Conflict Resolution Theory Centers and Other Academic Institutions

Since the establishment of the Conflict Resolution Program in 1984, the Hewlett Foundation has supported the development of theory on negotiation and conflict resolution at research centers, mostly affiliated with major universities across the United States.  These Hewlett-funded centers have supported research across many disciplines and fields, including anthropology, business, economics, education, environment studies, history, law, linguistics, political science, planning, psychology, public policy, religion, and sociology.  These centers were expected to meet a number of criteria, including participation by respected academics from a number of disciplines; a broad research agenda addressing a variey of conflict settings; linkages with practitioners, both to improve dispute resolution practice and to test theoretical insights; and a strategy for disseminating research results in order to influence practice and the development of public policy.  In recent years Hewlett has supplanted support of these centers with more focused research and knowledge-building efforts strategically linked to our current funding priorities.  The original centers, along with many other academic and nonacademic intitutions, continue to play an active and vital knowledge-building role in the field.  The following set of institutions (an incomplete list) have received support from the Hewlett Foundation.

Highlights

Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
Harvard University

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University

Dispute Resolution Consortium
City University of New York

Conflict Resolution Consortium
University of Colorado

Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Georgia State University
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Georgia

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Indiana University

Conflict and Change Center
University of Minnesota

Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation
Stanford University

Program on Conflict Resolution
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Dispute Resolution Research Center
Northwestern University

Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking
University of Minnesota

Center for Research in Conflict Resolution
The Pennsylvania State University

Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey

Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict
Syracuse University

Program on Mediating Theory and Democratic Systems
Wayne State University

Broad Field Project