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RSI December Staff Gathering

Nicole Wilmet, December 18th, 2018

This month, to celebrate 2018, our staff gathered in our Chicago office for our annual Staff Holiday Gathering! Our day started with an interesting and informative discussion with Director of Research Jennifer Shack as she reported on the findings from her evaluation of Washington, D.C.’s Child Protection Mediation Program. In the afternoon, we braced the cold Chicago weather to visit to the Christkindlmarket and tour the Chicago Design Museum’s “Keep Moving: Designing Chicago’s Bicycle Culture” exhibit.

Although some of us are based in our Chicago office, our RSI staff are also hard at work operating programs across Illinois and working remotely from Maine and Michigan. As such, our holiday gathering was a wonderful opportunity for us to come together and connect in one place. We are very much looking forward to the staff gatherings to come in 2019!

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Holidays. Gratitude. Hoping. Giving.

Susan M. Yates, December 12th, 2018

Popular American culture portrays the year-end holiday season as a special time for friends and family to gather. Over the years I have also seen that this time of year can bring a mixed bag of feelings. That certainly is the case at RSI! Here is some of what we are feeling as the year comes to a close.

EXCITED

RSI is dreaming big. We are developing an online dispute resolution process that will help parents work out how they will co-parent after they split up. We are encouraging more courts to tap into our deep well of research and evaluation expertise to improve their ADR programs. And we are working to increase the use of mediation when children who have been neglected are removed from their homes.

PROUD

One thing we are especially proud of is the work we have done and continue to do on foreclosure mediation. Our programs have helped to save more than 750 homes, we have completed the two most comprehensive evaluations of foreclosure ever conducted and all three of our programs are continuing with support from their courts after funding from the Illinois Attorney General ended August 31, 2018.

ANXIOUS

The end of that five-year grant from the Attorney General has added a certain sense of anxiety to our holiday cheer! We are facing the challenge of finding new financial support to continue working on our mission of strengthening access to justice through quality court ADR.

HOPEFUL

As we look forward to 2019, I am hopeful. Maybe that is because hopefulness is a job requirement for any non-profit executive director! But more than that, I see opportunities to make real differences in the lives of people who turn to the courts for civil justice.

GRATEFUL

I am personally so grateful to everyone who is part of RSI’s work. We have a dedicated Board and an amazing staff. We appreciate and are appreciated by the courts with whom we work. We know we can rely on skilled mediators and they, in turn, are appreciated by the parties they serve. We are supported financially by generous individuals, corporations, law firms, bar associations, courts and foundations. For all this, I am extremely grateful.

Whatever you are feeling during this holiday season, I hope that you share RSI’s desire to make justice more accessible through ADR. With your support, we can give voice to people when they need it most.

Please consider making a contribution to RSI, online at https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Resolution-Systems-Institute or by sending your check to RSI at 11 East Adams St., Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60603. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your contribution can be tax-deductible.

Thank you for supporting RSI’s mission to improve access to justice by enhancing court ADR.

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The Twelve Hours of Conflict

Susan M. Yates, December 10th, 2018

In what has become a holiday tradition here at RSI, here is our annual posting of the The Twelve Hours of Conflict. Happy holidays!

For the first hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me a round table with a great view

For the second hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the third hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the fourth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the fifth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me five as-pir-in
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the sixth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me six tested realities
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the seventh hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the eighth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me eight explored BATNAs
Seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the ninth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me nine fresh perspectives
Eight explored BATNAs
Seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the tenth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me ten brainstorms
Nine fresh perspectives
Eight explored BATNAs
Seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the eleventh hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me eleven cookie breaks
Ten brainstorms
Nine fresh perspectives
Eight explored BATNAs
Seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

For the twelfth hour of conflict, my neutral gave to me twelve resolved issues
Eleven cookie breaks
Ten brainstorms
Nine fresh perspectives
Eight explored BATNAs
Seven caucuses
Six tested reality
Five aspirin
Four mirrored feelings
Three paraphrases
Two succinct summaries
And a round table with a great view

Have a great New Year!

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Findings from an Evaluation of Eight Foreclosure Mediation Programs

Jennifer Shack, December 5th, 2018

As I mentioned last month, I recently completed a comprehensive evaluation of eight foreclosure mediation programs in Illinois. One great benefit of evaluating eight programs with different approaches to resolving the same cases is that it allowed me to uncover program design factors and other variables that promote program success. The three big takeaways from the evaluation are that proper program design is essential, provision of services has an impact on homeowner outcomes, and data is crucial to program improvement. The evaluation was a final look at the eight programs that were funded by the Illinois Attorney General, encompassing up to four years for each program. Seven of the eight programs used relatively uniform data that was collected on the same online case management system. Further, I worked with each program to define the variables used so that we had a clear understanding of the meaning of each variable. This allowed me to develop uniform measures for the programs that enabled comparisons of program performance across them.

First, some basic findings. The eight programs helped 4,766 homeowners, representing 23% of all foreclosure filings in their jurisdictions. They saved 1,100 homes. Once homeowners entered the programs, 21% to 40% saved their homes, depending on the program. More than 90% of homeowners who completed surveys said that they gained a better understanding of their options and how to work with their lenders. Almost all homeowners felt that they were treated fairly and with respect. Most felt that they were able to talk about the issues and concerns that were most important to them and almost all felt the mediator understood what was important to them. Most were satisfied with their experience.

Now to the takeaways. Program design played a significant role in how many homeowners a program was able to help and how many homeowners participated in the program. The two variables are different because most programs helped homeowners to understand their options and the foreclosure process, even if they could not or decided not to participate. Those programs that told homeowners that they must appear for their initial session and provided a date and time for that had significantly higher proportions of homeowners appear and participate than programs that had them contact the program in other ways. And those programs that told homeowners they had to call the program coordinator, provided a deadline to do so and sent additional reminders had significantly higher proportions of homeowners contact the program and participate than those programs that informed the homeowners of the program and told them how to start the process to participate.

Participation rate is very important, not just because higher participation means that more homeowners are helped. The greater the proportion of homeowners facing foreclosure who participate in the program, the greater the proportion of homeowners who save their homes.

Other aspects matter as well. Having the homeowners meet with a representative for their lender from the outset appears to improve program completion rates and possibly improves the probability that participating homeowners save their homes. Within individual programs, those homeowners who worked with a housing counselor are more likely to complete the program. Those who worked with attorneys were much more likely to complete the program. Interestingly, they weren’t more likely to save their homes.

It was very gratifying to see that those programs that made changes based on the data they were collecting and the recommendations from my first evaluation were improved by those changes. For example, the 19th Circuit and 20th Circuit programs made changes to the manner in which homeowners contacted and entered the program, significantly improving participation. The 16thand 19th Circuits worked with mediators to improve their skills, leading to fewer mediator issues and more participants leaving mediation with a good experience.

For a quick take on the evaluation, see the Executive Summary.
To access a digital summary of the evaluation, click here.
For the Full Evaluation, download PDF .

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