This article is part of a series of perspectives on eviction mediation program development that is being supported by the American Arbitration Association-International Centre of Dispute Resolution Foundation. The AAA-ICDR’s grant is enabling RSI to expand our outreach to other court ADR colleagues working in the fast-evolving eviction field, and we are tremendously grateful to the Foundation for their support.
Those of you familiar with Resolution Systems Institute will know that over the past year, we have been heavily focused on the rise in eviction cases in the aftermath of COVID-19. This evolving eviction crisis has begun to, and will continue to, test the capacity of our court systems in a way likely not seen since the foreclosure wave of the last decade. RSI’s mission is to strengthen access to justice through court ADR, and with many courts looking at diversion efforts to address a surge in eviction cases, we see both significant opportunities and challenges ahead to ensure that participants receive due process.
We are thus very proud to share with you our new Eviction Mediation Special Topic. In the past, we have shared with you our Special Topics collections on subjects such as Child Protection Mediation, Community Mediation and Online Dispute Resolution, to name a few. These resources provide background on how court ADR programs address these cases, share insight into how to evaluate such programs and share relevant resources such as articles, evaluations and sample materials.
The Eviction Mediation Special Topic contains all of this information, with a slight twist. Due to the topical nature of this subject, we have prepared this resource in the context of the current crisis. Background information and certain resources are therefore presented with current events in mind, and we also have a section about key considerations we have learned thus far into the eviction crisis. Additionally, we have done our best to collect information on active court ADR eviction programs, captured in our Eviction ADR Across the Country database. We plan to update the Special Topic regularly as developments unfold, and new collective knowledge becomes available to the field.
We are sincerely grateful to the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution Foundation, whose generous funding has enabled us to create and share this resource.
Tags: AAA-ICDR Evictions
