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 The Western Justice Center strives
to create a more civil society through a
process
of engagement and education that will enable
individuals and institutions to
become partners
in peace-building. The Western Justice Center
does this by working on
local, regional and
national projects
with children, communities,
and courts
to assure
peaceful conflict resolution.
The Western Justice Center 's vision emerged in 1985, when the Honorable Dorothy W.
Nelson and
a group of judges and lawyers from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th
Circuit saw an unmet need to expand the quantity and quality of research into dispute
resolution methods and strategies for improving the administration of justice. In 1996, the
Western Justice Center became fully
operational. Its campus-like complex is home to 17
tenant non-profit organizations that all have an interest in children, the arts, conflict
resolution
and public policy. The Center's four historic buildings constitute an
extraordinary western
landmark that is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.
The Friends Building , the
Keatinge Building and 65 South Grand have been completely
restored.
The fourth and largest
building, Maxwell House, serves as the permanent
headquarters and conference center for
the Western Justice Center and is expected to
be fully restored in 2007.
On the local level, the Western Justice Center has implemented groundbreaking programs
in the
area of inter-ethnic dialogue and deliberation. It was one of the first organizations
to
use the
Internet for dialogue in collaboration with America On-Line. The Western
Justice
Center continues
this tradition of using large scale intervention approaches to
resolve the
most urgent conflicts of our time.
The Western Justice Center works on the
regional level to provide education on the
impact
of conflict resolution systems and their use during times of discord. In response to
the
surge
in violence in our state and local schools, the Western Justice Center made a
presentation
of research findings on the use of these systems to the California Assembly
Select Committee
in 2005.
The Western Justice Center regularly contributes to the national discourse on issues of
conflict resolution and develops innovative conflict resolution models. Last year, the
Executive Director
was appointed to the National Coalition for Dialogue and
Deliberation, where members believe
that elevating the quality of thinking and
communication in organizations and among citizens is
key to solving humanity's most
pressing problems. |
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