Contact: Sharon Pickett (301-365-9307)

Compton Foundation Supports Conflict Resolution Education in Schools:
Awards $50,000 Grant to the Association for Conflict Resolution

Washington, D.C.--The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) announced today that it has received a $50,000 grant from the Compton Foundation to improve and expand conflict resolution education in schools. Conflict Resolution Education has been shown to reduce violence and antisocial and intolerant behavior, create improved environments for learning, and enhance children's academic achievement. The grant to ACR will help build support for this important educational experience at both the K-12 and higher education levels.

ACR is a nonprofit professional membership organization representing more than 6,000 mediators, arbitrators, educators and other involved in the field of conflict resolution and collaborative decision-making. ACR's Education Section includes approximately 500 teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators, professors and researchers in higher education, leaders of youth organizations and other specialists in conflict resolution education from across the nation and around the world. The grant will help ACR better serve these members so that they can support the further institutionalization of conflict resolution education in schools.

"We are delighted to receive this vote of confidence from the Compton Foundation and will work hard to make every dollar count," said ACR President Nancy E. Peace. "This grant will help us reach out to education professionals and encourage them to teach conflict resolution education in their classrooms and start peer mediation programs in their schools. It will also help us provide our members with conflict resolution curriculum materials, reports, newsletters, and professional development opportunities that otherwise would have been unavailable to them."

ACR will contact education reporters at daily newspapers and encourage them to interview ACR speakers and write about conflict resolution education programs in their local schools. It will create fact sheets and Web-based resources documenting research on the effectiveness of conflict resolution education and encourage members to distribute these materials to parents, school board members, elected local officials and other influential members of their communities. It will encourage ACR members to speak at education conferences and invite their colleagues to join ACR.

Through these and other activities, ACR will increase the effectiveness of conflict resolution educators and build public support for conflict resolution education in schools nationwide. For more information on ACR, please see contact Sharon Pickett, ACR Communications Consultant, at 301-365-9307 or Jennifer Druliner at jdruliner@acresolution.org.

07/22/2003