40 years of participatory problem solving. 40 years of being a leader in the field of community mediation. Community Boards sure has a lot to celebrate!  We're planning a calendar of events including a very exciting 40th Anniversary Party on December 3.  Please be sure to RSVP.

These are our other anniversary activities:

• Conducting a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey.  We'll also convene several Focus Groups for you to sit down and have face-to-face conversations to share your input and feedback.
   
• Partnering with StoryCorps to memorialize Community Boards' history and the voices of former staff, volunteers, and innovators who've made Community Boards a pioneer in the field of community mediation.
   
• Creating a critical, five-year Strategic Plan that will help us envision programmatic direction and development.
   
• Launching a new Community Boards Legacy Society, which we hope you will join.
   
• Developing a new Community Boards Archive.  If you have any historic photographs or materials, please contact Jim Garrison at jgarrison@communityboards.org.

As we honor Community Boards' history, we're also seeking to sustain our legacy. In late October, we'll ask you to contribute to our $40 for 40 Legacy Campaign.  Our goal: raise $4000 by the year's end. Please join us and give what you can to sustain Community Boards' unique and important services.

In 1976 Community Boards revolutionized the social justice movement with a grassroots experiment in participatory peacemaking and problem solving.  It's an experiment that has stood the test of time.  Forty years later, Community Boards continues to thrive.  We are so grateful to YOU for being a part of our communal history.

With gratitude and thanks,

Darlene

I took the Community Boards mediation training in 1977 -- the very first one!   I later worked at CB from 1983 to 2006, first as a community organizer, then soon after I became a case manager. A case manager in those days also did intakes, panel coordination, outreach, and training.   In 1998 I became the Program Director and five years later I briefly served as Co-Executive Director with Rebecca Araiz-Iverson. Today I volunteer as a Coach at the Basics of Mediation trainings.

I continue to volunteer because the work is just as exciting today as it was when I first joined. I'm sure many of you have had the same joy and satisfaction after a successful mediation that I still have.

I'm still inspired by the vision and values of our late fantastic founder, Raymond Shonholtz: a viable alternative "justice system" delivered by community members from all walks of life.

Our process and organization of remarkable volunteers, staff and trainers who unfailingly make this process available to others, make Community Boards a societal treasure and one of the truly bright spots on earth.

Happy 40th Anniversary, Community Boards!