Peel Family Mediation Services is committed to ensure that high-quality court-based mediation and information is available to persons in the Regional Municipality of Peel, who are involved in family court proceedings, by:

• Delivering court-based family mediation to persons who may otherwise experience financial barriers in receiving this assistance;
  
  
• Delivering basic family law and separation information to the community;
  
  
• Providing mediation internships, to increase the availability of mediators in the community; and
  
  
• Advocating family mediation in the community.

To facilitate this mission, Peel Family Mediation Services are a partner in the Peel Family Mediation and Parent Education Program with Family Services of Peel and Graduate Programme of School of Social Work at York University.

[The attached Core Values and Objectives form part of this Mission Statement.]

Core Values

Peel Family Mediation Services core values are:

• to encourage and provide options for a more efficient and constructive process for the resolution of custody, access and other family law disputes (including child protection proceedings);
  
  
• to focus on the resolution of family law disputes that have been brought before the courts;
  
  
• to provide mediation with a priority given to issues directly impacting children (financial issues being secondary to this), and on meeting commitments to the Ontario Court of Justice;
  
  
• to complement those services available from the private mediation community and encourage the use of private mediators, when possible;
  
  
• to be sensitive to the diversity in the Regional Municipality of Peel and to reflect this diversity in Peel Family Mediation Services’ management structure and decisions; and
  
  
• to manage the organization in a co-operative style, with clear processes to ensure accountability and efficient decision-making.

Objectives

Peel Family Mediation Services objectives are:

• to provide a community-based response to a need for court-based mediation and information services;
  
  
• to meet or exceed mediation and information services available in other Ontario locations, where there is a full-service Family Law Information Centre at the Superior Court of Justice [Family Branch] (also known as “Unified Family Court”);
  
  
• to reduce conflict, delay and demands on resources, related to proceedings in family law courts, through the provision of mediation and education about the court process;
  
  
• to provide mediation services that not only attempt to resolve specific issues, but also to improve the ability of the parties to resolve future disputes (Children benefit when their parents are able to resolve disputes in a co-operative manner, without undue conflict or litigation.);
  
  
• to provide basic information to the community and to individuals, about the separation experience, alternate dispute resolution, court process and role of persons involved;
  
  
• to provide services of a consistently high quality and to meet or exceed the standards of practice set by the provincial government for mediations, supervisors and for the services provided through the unified family court system;
  
  
• to reach out to the community and make services provided by Peel Family Mediation Services as accessible as possible;
  
  
• to systematically gather and analyze information about the services provided, in order to support ongoing service improvement and contribute to broader academic knowledge about court-based mediation and information services; and
  
  
• to contribute to the availability of trained mediators in the community.