Madison County CASA director awarded scholarship to study conflict management
Janel Shoun |
Jones will receive more than $38,500 in tuition from the CNM in Nashville, to earn a master’s of arts in conflict management from Lipscomb University’s Institute for Conflict Management (ICM). Lipscomb’s program is unique in the mid-south region and was established by Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry, also the founder of the nationally recognized Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution in California.
Recognizing that non-profit organizations deal with a great deal of conflict in their daily service to the community, CNM partnered with Lipscomb’s ICM last year to bring its high-quality training to Tennessee’s nonprofit managers.
“CNM recognizes that conflict can arise in any nonprofit organization and this program helps individuals develop the skill set necessary to deal with conflict effectively. We are excited for the opportunity to bring high quality training to Tennessee’s nonprofit managers and grateful to Lipscomb University for making this scholarship available,” said Lewis Lavine, CNM president.
Jones, whose CASA office recruits, trains and supervises volunteers to serve as advocates for juveniles in the court system, expects her eventual degree to benefit not only her career but also her organization and the overall community by bringing additional mediation skill to the region. She hopes to use her newfound skills to establish CASA mediation programs for families who find themselves caught up in the juvenile court system, she said.
“When you look at the court system, it is really a means of conflict resolution. There are so many ways conflict affects our organization: conflicts between volunteers and family members, between staff members, between court officials and volunteers. I plan to take what I learn and share it with our volunteers and staff,” said Jones.
Many of the families CASA works with don’t have the money to hire an attorney or a professional mediator, so they often enter the process completely bewildered by the court system, Jones said. Any additional information CASA can bring to these families will improve the lives of the children, she noted.
“Increased conflict management expertise is greatly needed in a variety of fields, but in the non-profit field it is both greatly needed and often inaccessible,” said Larry Bridgesmith, executive director of the ICM at Lipscomb. “We are proud to be partnering with the Center for Nonprofit Management to help alleviate this problem in our state.”
Jones has worked as executive director at Madison County CASA since 2004. Previously she worked as a federal grant manager and employee relations representative at West Tennessee Healthcare. She became involved with CASA after the 2001 birth of her son Collin inspired her to volunteer with the non-profit.
She will start working toward her degree in January as part of the ICM’s third class of students to participate in this unique 36-hour program, which includes courses on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, psychology of conflict, public policy and more.
The Center for Nonprofit Management creates and sustains nonprofit excellence through training, consulting, research, evaluation and recognition of nonprofit agencies. Established 20 years ago, it has 675 member agencies.
Lipscomb University established the ICM to provide graduate and professional training in dispute resolution. Good conflict management skills defuse explosive situations before they end up costing an organization through litigation, loss of employees or loss of production. The ICM provides a practical benefit to Middle Tennessee individuals and businesses such as law, health care, ministerial work, education and law enforcement, as well as the community at-large.
Future applicants for the CNM scholarship to Lipscomb’s master’s in conflict management program need only meet Lipscomb’s standard admission requirements, show a commitment to the nonprofit field in Tennessee and have relevant work experience.