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Our Class of 2024 mediators are off and running!
Please, contact us for other training opportunities, or to discuss the possibility of joining our Class of 2025!
Email: info@socalfm.org
Whom We Serve and What We Do
What is Dependency Court?
In Los Angeles County, in addition to about 60 Family Law courts, there are about 30 "Children's" Dependency courts. Dependency courts are "where they take your kids away". Whenever children can safely be reunited with their parents, family reunification (FR) is the goal of the courts. FR may take years, and may include Parenting, Anger Management, and other classes in addition to counseling, therapy, and/or drug and/or alcohol testing.
Family Reunification
Parents may exit the court system having regained legal and/or physical custody of their children. A parent may have day visits (no overnights) only, or even supervised visits with their children.
Co-Parents & Co-Parenting
When parents share the rights and responsibilities for raising their children, but the parents do not cohabitate, they are described as co-parents.
Mediated Parenting Plan Agreements
This is a big part of what we do.
When co-parenting families are about to exit the dependency court system, they need a plan. SCFM co-mediators help co-parents create their own plan, including things like: Weekly Schedule, Visit Supervisors, Transportation and Exchanges, Communications, Holiday Schedules, and more.
How to join the scfm Class of 2024 Mediators
Step 1: Understand Our Motivation
- There are 30,000 kids in the Los Angeles County Juvenile Justice System. The court system continues to grow. Mediation will be a necessary component of any serious effort to reduce the scale of this crisis.
- Keeping kids in safe homes and out of foster housing is very rewarding, and gives our lives a sense of purpose.
- We have the proven ability to help the most in-need young parents and at-risk kids, when others could not. When co-parents reach us it means a judge, a social worker, and four attorneys could not help them agree. 90% of co-parents will successfully create a Parenting Plan Agreement through SCFM mediation.
- Unparalleled personal and professional growth instills confidence in any situation.
- We feel a sense of belonging, as members of an outstanding family-style team achieving excellence together.
- We value living lives of service and intention, and we desire to make the world a little bit better place.
- We believe: A. Conflict can be managed more successfully and less harmfully, B. Productive conflict engagement is a learneable skill set, C. People can change & heal, and D. Mediators are the medicine.
Step 2: Understand Our Commitment
- This is a minimum two year commitment.
- We require one day every week, for the first year. (Vacations, etc. are of course, no problem.)
- Most of our co-mediators serve families online exclusively. Some co-mediate from other states or even other countries. There are opportunities to mediate in person at the Edmund D. Edelman Children's Courthouse, in Monterey Park, CA.
- Our co-mediations can take all day, so your schedule must be clear from 8:00AM to 4:00PM to mediate.
- We currently co-mediate dependency court cases Tuesdays thru Fridays.
- We ask for two years, and we hope you will find a lifetime of meaning and growth serving with our team.
Step 3: Understand Our Education Process
> Currently, all SCFM mediation education is delivered online.
Advanced Family and Dependency Court Mediation
- Approved by the Judicial Counsel of California (although the specific content is not necessarily endorsed). It will take more than 40 hours to complete.
- Options:
- SCFM AFDCM Education Program: $500
- For those who wish to complete the education program, and potentially go on to join the SCFM team of co-mediators, the cost is also only $500.
- Consisting of:
- Pre-recorded on-demand education, and
- Live on-line sessions.
For those selected to join the SCFM team: A) LAC Superior Court security clearance is required (no substitutes), and B) You will go on to: a) Observe two co-mediations, and b) Participate in five pre-mediation micro-trainings.
Step 4: Email Us Your CV
Ahora estamos aceptando solicitudes para unirnos a la Clase SCFM de 2024. Envíe por correo electrónico una breve biografía, CV o currículum a info@socalfm.org.
Please email your CV to info@socalfm.org.
Ken Cloke -
"This is one of the premier mediation programs in the world.
And nothing less than the lives of children are at stake."