Over the past decade, Poland has witnessed an alarming trend in its country’s families. As the population has generally remained steady, the number of divorces has nearly doubled during this time. The rate of divorces to total marriages has also increased over this period, as has the number of Polish children involved in divorce proceedings. A result of these trends has been the deterioration of the family unit, leading to difficulties with youth, including substance abuse, truancy, and psychological illnesses. Further, Polish courts have become over-burdened with family issues, as litigation is the only widely recognized option for the resolution of family disputes.

Recent legislation and research studies suggest, however, that mediation is becoming increasingly popular and recognized as an alternative means of resolving family disputes in Poland. For example, the national family and foster code mandates pre-trial “conciliation” hearings for disputants, while the Ministry of Justice has publicly supported introducing mediation into the family legal system, and the European Union’s Committee of Ministers on Family Mediation has recommended utilizing mediation rather than litigation in family disputes. In fact, several groups have initiated family mediation services, but their efforts have been largely unsuccessful due to a lack of public awareness, deficiency of mediator skills, competing priorities, and inability to cooperate with social service providers, counselors and other family experts.

Within this environment, Partners-Poland launched its Family Mediation Center (FMC) in January 2002 to respond to the needs of its constituents. First, Partners-Poland built its staff capacity through a series of workshops and seminars to develop specialized skills in family dynamics and managing the nuances of family conflict. They enlisted legal experts, psychotherapists and academics to provide the legislative context for family mediation, dissect the emotional aspects of divorce and marital conflict, assess the emotional impact on children, and establish ground rules to differentiate mediation from psychotherapy.

Next, Partners-Poland conducted an extensive needs assessment within Warsaw to gauge the interest and awareness of family mediation, interviewing citizen advice bureaus, psychotherapists, women’s and children’s rights NGOs, family consultation centers, priests, family practice lawyers and judges. The results from this research confirmed that family mediation is a service strongly needed by both professionals and citizens coping with family problems, and revealed that the strongest areas for mediation are childcare in divorce cases and communication problems in marital conflicts. With this data, Partners-Poland designed outreach and promotional materials and implemented a strategy to reach potential clients and case referral sources. Staff conducted presentations to organizations working with family issues, disseminated outreach materials to social service and welfare agencies and clinics, promoted the service through print, radio and television media, and posted flyers in public places and the Internet. Further, Partners-Poland built strategic relationships with Polish and European institutions specializing in mediation for best practices and technical assistance.

Simultaneous to the outreach campaign, Partners-Poland developed the FMC’s structure and procedures necessary to operate the service. All FMC staff was trained in case management, and designed a series of questions and forms for potential clients during the case intake stage; this initial period is critical, often meaning the difference between two disputants coming to the table and no case at all. Partners-Poland developed strict criteria to evaluate whether a given case is suitable for mediation, and will not accept cases involving violence or severe psychological disorders. Partners-Poland designed a database to manage and track all communication and sessions for cases, as well as to monitor and analyze the effectiveness of the service. The FMC’s staffing includes five full-time Partners-Poland mediators as well as numerous volunteers as co-mediators and intake coordinators.

With this structure in place, Partners-Poland developed a model of mediation tailored to resolving family disputes in the Polish context. Ground rules for this model include adhering to an open door policy in which all types of family disputes are potential cases; pairing a male and female mediator to build trust with both parties and facilitate impartiality; not restricting the number of mediation sessions available to clients; referring cases that are more appropriate for psychotherapy to the relevant assistant source; and providing resolution services free of charge.

During the first nine months of its operation, the FMC received 111 cases for mediation. The following describes the breakdown of the FMC’s family cases:

• 40%: marital disputes not associated with divorce
• 16%: separating couples
• 10%: divorcing couples
• 10%: non-spouse family members
• 8%: post-divorce couples

The other 16% of cases involved non-family related disputes, including debts, workplace relations, and other professional dealings.

Thus far, the FMC has maintained a success rate of 84%, an impressive number in-line with international standards for mediation. These cases have resulted in a range of settlements, including equitable division of assets, child custody, alimony payments, care for elderly family members, treatment for mental illness, and commitment to psychotherapy (see attached document for description of individual cases). On average, the mediation sessions have lasted approximately two to four hours each, and two to three sessions have been required to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

In addition, given the tremendous success of the FMC and the need identified in communities outside Warsaw, Partners-Poland developed a program to create new local family mediation centers in five additional communities in the Mazovian District. These local services are housed in District Centers for Social Aid, and received training and technical assistance from Partners-Poland’s staff. The long-term goal is to build a national network of local mediation centers that can efficiently and cost-effectively resolve disputes and tap into the immense knowledge and lessons learned from experts across the country and internationally.

Partners-Poland’s work demonstrates that mediation can produce numerous beneficial results. The FMC has had a tangible impact on spouses, parents, children, and entire families through resolving disputes involving property, divorce, child custody and care, alimony payments, and habitation issues. Simultaneously, the service has served as an impetus for couples to attend psychotherapy and improve their communication and relations, and has protected children engaged in parental/marital conflict. FMC’s success and diversity of cases illustrate that mediation is widely applicable to a range of community issues and disputes, and that citizens from all walks of life can be empowered to resolve their own problems and participate in cooperative processes.

Additional Resources
1) Descriptions of Family Mediation Cases

2) Testimonial from Social Worker Participating in Family Mediation Program

3) Ordinance from the Ministry of Justice Regulating Mediation in Juvenile Cases