Partnership with Children, a New York-based, not-for-profit agency, faciltated a first-ever virtual Peer Mediation Summit via Skype on Wednesday, May 25 with students at Golightly Career and Technical Center in Detroit and the students at Global High School in New York City.

The non-profit has been working with six Detroit schools to bring its extensive experience in the area of social and emotional learning to nearly 100 inner-city Detroit students, including leveraging the free video conferencing technology, Skype, to train and monitor teachers in collaboration with Partnership with Children’s Center for Capacity Building.

The event included a Q&A where Detroit and New York City Public School students asked brief questions about each other’s experience with peer mediation, schools and cities. Students will also participate in “Peer Mediation Jeopardy: Detroit vs. New York City” and then engage in a “Peace Pact” to discuss how they are going to use Peer Mediation in their everyday lives.

The program is part of the DPS Conflict Resolution Initiative, a $2.5 million program aimed at equipping students, teachers, principals and parents with the skills needed to resolve school-based conflicts, increase tolerance and ward off behaviors that can lead to bullying. Every school in the district is being paired with a partner company that will work alongside school staff to implement the initiative, which is being funded through Title I, Title IV and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

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