• Seven Steps to Effective Problem Solving

  • Identify the issues
  • Understand everyone's interests
  • List the possible options
  • Evaluate the options
  • Select an option or options
  • Document the agreement(s)
  • Agree on contingencies, monitoring, and evaluation

Are you good at solving problems? Want to get more practice using important, real-world issues? Check out Youth For Justice. Youth for Justice is a student-led program designed to empower youth to be actively engaged citizens who work together to make a positive difference in their community. The program allows students to identify an injustice, intolerance or problem relevant to their local community, and then develop a plan of action and work together to remedy the injustice.

• Conflict Resolution Strategy

  • Meet and talk about your problem
  • Take turns talking and listening
  • Think of a solution together. What will help you solve your problem?
  • Make a plan
  • Put your plan into action

• Ways to Settle Conflicts Fairly

  • Use a game of chance, like flipping a coin or playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
  • Take turns
  • Apologize
  • Compromise
  • Take a vote

• Managing Emotions

  • Identify complex emotions as an indicator of personal state of well being
  • Learn to recognize when your emotions are triggered, and learn to regulate them
  • There are appropriate times and places to express emotions, independently or with people you trust

• Leadership

  • Learn from mistakes and improve for the future

    • Personal responsibility means being accountable for your choices and behavior.
    • Everyone makes mistakes. Be the kind of person who learns from yours!

  • Listen to others to achieve a common goal

    • People you trust can be helpful and supportive as you pursue your goals.
    • Share a common purpose to build positive relationships.

  • Giving and receiving feedback

    • Feedback is a gift to be given and received.
    • Feedback from people you trust is meant to help you grow and learn.
    • When you give honest feedback, don't be afraid to get some in return.

• Reasoning Skills

  • Critical thinking

    • Try to look at all available information and perspectives when making a decision.

  • Problem-solving

    • Explore all options and seek the input of others when faced with a problem.

  • Design and computational thinking

    • Break down problems.
    • Look for patterns.
    • Design solutions based on those patterns.

  • Information evaluation

    • Learn about the sources of information before utilizing them.
    • Look for signs of bias when evaluating information.

Social-Emotional Learning - (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control & interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work & life success.

• Self-awareness

  • Stand up for yourself!
  • Learn your strengths and investigate career paths that highlight those strengths.

• Self-management

  • Learn to manage your time.
  • What are the pros and cons of a decision?
  • How do thoughts, emotions, and behaviors relate to one another?
  • Identify resources to help you achieve your goals.
  • Set action steps for your short- and long-term goals.
  • Turn setbacks into opportunities to learn and grow.

• Social awareness

  • Verbal and non-verbal cues may help you understand the feelings of others.
  • Make your community a better place.
  • Respect those who are different from you, and learn from one another.
  • Social cues can change depending on the situation.

• Collaboration

  • Work with others to achieve common goals.
  • Different perspectives can help expose solutions to problems.
  • Listen attentively.
  • Accept and offer constructive feedback.

• Empathy

  • See things from the perspective of others.
  • Take the feelings of others into account.
  • Empathy helps to prevent pre-judgment.

• Relationahip skills

  • How we interact with others says a lot about who we are.
  • Build positive relationships with others by asking questions about their interests and including them in your activities.
  • Conflicts happen - in all relationships, but they don’t have to be negative.
  • If you are having a big conflict, consider peer mediation. You will all understand each other more after you participate.

• Responsible decision-making

  • Look for all available evidence when making decisions.
  • Create a decision-making strategy. (Check out the “Solve Any Problem” and “Conflict Resolution” tabs on this site for ideas!)
  • Make sure your sources are reliable.

• How to Identify a Trusted Adult

  • A trusted adult is someone who respects your boundaries and doesn’t ask you to keep secrets from others.
  • A trusted adult is thoughtful - the person actively listens to you and believes you when you tell them something.
  • Trusted adults provide guidance and help you find solutions to problems.
  • Trusted adults do what is best for you, put you first, and care about your mental and emotional well-being and physical safety.
  • Trusted adults respect your opinions, ideas, and feelings.
  • Someone you can talk to about anything is a trusted adult. They are someone you feel happy being around, someone who is a good listener, or someone who has helped you before.
  • Think of a few adults in your life who you have approached with a problem or who you can imagine going to with a problem in the future. What types of people could possibly be trusted adults in your life?
  • Examples of a trusted adult could include: family, adult neighbors and friends, your best friend’s parent, adult helpers in the school and community, teachers, principals, police officers, family friends, grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings, or foster parents.
  • Trusted adults make you feel safe and comfortable. They are someone who won’t blame, shame, or judge you, but will help you find a solution.
  • It’s important to know that not all adults are trustworthy; if a person you trust ever does something that is not OK, always know that there are other trusted adults you can go to for help.

• Ways A Trusted Adult Could Help You

  • When you need assistance and the problem is too big for you, tell a trusted adult.
  • Are you so stressed out about a situation that you are having trouble eating, sleeping, or concentrating? It might be time to bring a trusted adult into it to help you solve the problem.
  • Speaking to a safe adult can help you feel listened to and decide on next steps.
  • You can tell a trusted adult anything you want to! Things that make you feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused; a problem you are having; or anything that makes you unhappy.
  • If you tell a trusted adult that something bad or dangerous happened to you, a trusted adult can help you solve the problem, be understanding, get help, and work hard to keep you safer.
  • If someone approaches you or tries to hurt you, touches you in a way that makes you feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused, or if you are in any kind of danger, you should tell a trusted adult right away.
  • It’s never too late to tell a trusted adult when something is bothering you. Tell them about something that happened ten years ago! Even talking it through might help.

What is Mediation?

• Benefits of Mediation

  • While regular school discipline teaches students to depend on principals and teachers to resolve conflicts, through mediation, students negotiate solutions themselves. As a mediator, YOU become the peacemaker!
  • Students bicker, threaten, tease, and harass one another at school. It makes the school day worse than it needs to be. Sometimes cultural or race problems arise. Sometimes things even get violent. Mediation can help negotiate these problems, without having to rely on a teacher to punish someone.
  • Traditional discipline at school requires that an adult watch student behavior, decide whether students are being appropriate, and make students stop if they are acting in an inappropriate way. But adults and authority figures are not always needed to resolve conflicts! Solving problems through student mediation allows you to learn to solve problems and come up with lots of great solutions on your own. You’ll probably learn more than if an adult just solved the problem for you.
  • Mediation teaches responsibility and self-regulation. Self-regulation is the ability to act in socially approved ways even when no adult is watching you to make sure you behave. To regulate your behavior, you must keep an eye on your OWN behavior, and decide which behaviors are appropriate based on the situation. That’s a huge lesson for the rest of your life!
  • Mediation teaches you to make decisions about how students at your school should behave. AND mediation teaches you to follow through on those decisions. In mediation, students will be given the responsibility for regulating their own and their classmates' behavior so that teachers can concentrate on TEACHING rather than making sure everyone is behaving themselves.

Does your school offer a peer mediation program? If not, ask a school counselor or administrator if you can start one!

For information about how to start a peer mediation program at your school, visit the Online Peer Mediation website. If you would like to use live Online Peer Mediation, find a teacher or school administrator to see if they will complete an intake form for you!

Want more information about peer mediation? Contact Michelle Zaremba, MPA, Director of the Dayton Mediation Center at 937.333.2352. She is an experienced conflict intervention expert with more than 20 years as a practitioner, trainer, and consultant.

The Dayton Mediation Center website also has great information about mediation!