Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) began in 1985, inspired by a national movement to offer dispute resolution alternatives to police or court involvement for everyday conflicts.
Bryan Johnston, Dr. Roy Patton, and Janet Hawkins returned from a community mediation workshop enthusiastic about creating a community mediation program. They, with Jan Alsever, worked to initiate a program that would work in Salem.
A group of community organisations including Women’s Crisis Center, Legal Aid, Salem-Keizer schools and the Salem Police Department gathered in January of 1985 to formulate a program to fit the needs of Salem with the goal of offering all members of the Salem community a free, convenient, workable program of volunteer mediation. They wanted to provide training that would empower mediators with skills to resolve neighborhood disputes, in turn helping the parties involved in mediation learn dispute resolution skills to pass on to others.
A Board of Directors was selected and the first training was in September of 1985. By December they were ready to publicize their mediation services to the community.
In 1989, the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission (ODRC) was created. One of its charges was to promote and assist community mediation programs throughout the State. Funding to enable this effort came from surcharges generated from county court fees. The Commission also set standards of mediator training for community-based programs.
In 1992 Neighbor to Neighbor, Inc. became a non-profit and opened the doors to the first office in downtown Salem with the first paid staff, Angie Schwartz.
A group of volunteers received additional training in 1993 to start a Juvenile Victim/Offender Mediation Program. The following year another group of mediators received training to begin the Adult Victim/Offender Reconciliation Program. This was the starting point for our Restorative Justice program which now serves four counties and has recently grown in Benton County.
In 1996 a “Conflict and Me” 3-hour training was developed to be available for presentation to community groups.
Neighbor to Neighbor partnered with the State of Oregon, (Oregon Housing and Community Services) in 1997 to provide mediation services to people residing in manufactured home parks in the program we now call MMHP. It has expanded to respond to SB586 which made mediation a requirement in some situations.
Since 1992, Neighbor-to-Neighbor has continued to expand services to include Marion, Linn, Benton and Yamhill counties. Neighbor-to-Neighbor continues to recruit and train volunteer mediators in basic mediation training classes conducted about once a year.
The Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission was abolished in 2003. The Community Dispute Resolution Center program was moved to the University of Oregon Law School. Neighbor-to-Neighbor continues to operate under a biennial grant from the Oregon Office of Community Dispute Resolution (OOCDR), now called Resolutions Oregon (RO).
In 2011, at the request of the board of Linn-Benton Mediation Services, the board and director of Neighbor to Neighbor worked to secure funding and restructure administration to offer services in Linn and Benton counties. Mediators from Linn-Benton Mediation Services were welcomed and programs continued.
In February of 2012, the Oregon Legislature passed SB 1552, which required lenders to mediate with borrowers prior to foreclosing on their residence. The program, originally called Foreclosure Avoidance Mediation Program (FAMP), and was implemented in July of 2012. Now called Oregon Foreclosure Avoidance Program is currently running and Neighbor to Neighbor offers services to homeowners in six counties.
Post Pandemic, under the Direction of Jared Rogers, Neighbor to Neighbor piloted a successful Eviction Avoidance Program. Inserting mediation in places where landlords and tenants were recovering from the effects of the moratorium. Today, the Eviction Avoidance Program is no longer funded but the services of landlord/tenant and FED mediation are folded into our regular community programs.
Your Community Mediators (Yamhill County) and Neighbor to Neighbor worked collaboratively to legally consolidate. Neighbor to Neighbor embraced the mediators and community in Yamhill county and expanded service to the entirety of Yamhill County.
Neighbor-to-Neighbor handles approximately 1,100 cases per year, receiving referrals from law enforcement, housing authority, private attorneys, Marion County Juvenile Department, neighborhood associations, community and code enforcement, dog control, manufactured dwelling parks, schools and other local government agencies. The time, effort, commitment and vision of individuals serving on the Board of Directors over the years, in the volunteer ranks, and as staff, is a testimony to the effectiveness, value and the constancy of alternative methods of dispute resolution.