In Family Mediation, the parties in the dispute are members of the same family. Their relationship is permanent (or long-term), such as a parent and child, or spouses with children in common. Once the issues involved in the dispute are resolved, the parties can begin working on rebuilding the quality of the relationship.
You may be ready for a divorce, or just looking for separation. Either way, you and your spouse will need an agreement on how to address parenting, property, debts, spousal support, and more. You don't want to air your private lives in a public process, and you don't want attorneys and judges making all the decisions for you and your family, but what choice do you have?
We offer an alternative. Mediation offers an opportunity to help separating or divorcing couples communicate, building an agreement that works for them. The process is absolutely confidential, and nobody will force you into anything you don't want to agree to. You and you spouse can make informed decisions, consult experts, and settle the issues that are important to you.
No other family is quite like yours. So why should your parenting plan look just like anyone else's? The Peacemaker Program, Inc. has highly-trained mediators ready and waiting to help you build a customized plan that works for your family, your lives, your needs, and focuses on your children. Rather than fighting each other in open court, parents (and other family members) can sit down together and describe exactly what it is that they need to make an arrangement work. This creates agreements that work better, last longer, and have much less of a negative impact on you and your children.
In New York State, a Support Magistrate issues an order detailing how much each parent must contribute to the support of their child. This order is based on a formula in the Child Support Standards Act, and the Magistrate will use that formula as a guideline to ensure that a child is properly provided for. However, parents have the ability to create their own plan for supporting their children and submit that plan to the Magistrate for approval. The Peacemaker Program, Inc. has mediators on hand who can help to explain the guidelines and guide your family toward a plan that works better for you.
The relationship between parents and children is a complicated one, and as children become teens it can become particularly challenging. Parent-child mediators can help to bridge the communication gap that often develops, and help you to make a plan to restore safety and sanity to your household.
Elder care mediation is a specialized service for older adults and their families. Common topics include maintaining autonomy and independence, housing and living arrangements, care giving, healthcare management, safety, and more. The service offers elders and their families a way to manage their lives either outside of, or in conjunction with, the court system.
