Mediators Beyond Borders International

6th Annual Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, Fall 2013

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Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) continues to prepare for our 6th Annual
Congress in Istanbul in 2013. About 30 MBBI members are working on various ommittees,
and 60 people from 9 countries have said they are planning to attend. We have received a
commitment of involvement from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and are working
closely with William Ury’s Abraham’s Path organization.
Because of the complexities involved in holding our first Congress outside North America, the Congress Coordinating Committee, co-chaired by Steve Goldsmith and MBBI Board Member  Deniz Kite, recommended, and the MBBI Board of Directors has approved, moving the dates of the 2013 Congress from late April to September 26, 27, 28, 2013.

5th Annual Congress Video

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Curious about what happens at a Mediators Beyond Borders Congress? Check our taste of MBB video to discover all the highlights of the 5th Annual Congress. If you weren’t there, you can get a taste of the community built during congress. If you were there, check it out and look for yourself, the videos’ best cameo appearance!

The 5th Annual Congress in Baltimore, MD focused on the projects and chapters of MBB. It also included keynote addresses from Melanie Greenberg, President, Alliance
for Peacebuilding; Abderrahim Foukara, Washington Bureau Chief Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Satellite Channel; and Sanam Anderlini.

Taste of Congress MBBI 2012 from Steve Goldsmith – MBBI on Vimeo.

Mediators Beyond Borders Makes the Move to Washington, D.C.

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Ambassador (Ret.) John W. McDonald, a member of MBB’s Global Advisory Council is IMTD’s Chairman & CEO.

In June 2012, Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBB) moved to the Washington, D.C. area to share office space and staff with The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy (IMTD), an organization that shares MBB’s vision of building a peace “able” world.

IMTD’s mission is to promote a system-based approach to
peacebuilding and to facilitate the transformation of deep-rooted social conflict through education, conflict resolution training and communication. You can find them on the web at http://www.imtd.org/

Karen Dickman is IMTD’s Executive
Director.

The move took MBB from New York City to IMTD’s office in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River, from the District of Columbia, two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro Station. 

MBB and IMTD will be sharing the services of Finance and Operations Director Tadios Tekeste. Tad has a Master’s degree in Accounting from Strayer University, Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Pune, India. 

We are very excited about this creative collaboration between two peacebuilding organizations and look forward to the opportunities that this new development will offer to advance MBB’s mission of building local skills for peace and promoting mediation worldwide.  

MBB’s new mailing address is:
1901 North Fort Myer Drive, Suite 405
Arlington, VA 22209, USA
Our new office phone number is 703-528-6552
Our new Fax is 703-528-5776.

Our general email address will remain the same: info@mediatorsbeyondborders.org

 

A Peacemaker Among Us: Steve Goldsmith LA County’s Peacemaker of the year

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Steve Goldsmith with his sister Joan at the MBB 5th Annual
Congress . Steve is the Chairman of MBB’s 6th Annual Congress
in Istanbul Turkey in the fall of 2013.

Steve Goldsmith is a leader among peacemakers. After 30 years in the field of conflict resolution, he was awarded the 2012 Ester Serriano Peacemaker of the Year Award by Los Angeles County. The award honored his work with Centinela Youth Services (CYS) where he served as the executive director for more than 14 years.

We at Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBB) know Steve to be the co-chair of the 2011, 2012, and 2013 congresses and the Los Angeles MBB Chapter organizer. But in addition to working tirelessly for MBB, he has also spent his life working on behalf of justice. He has been a civil rights activist, a union organizer at steel mills, and has worked to help youth heal from crime and violence in their communities.

During his time at CYS, he worked to establish their nationally recognized programs including programs for victim/offender restitution and family mediation to help impact risk factors that contribute to delinquency. He has been a long time restorative justice advocate and served on the Vice President’s Safe Cities Partnership in 1999, the Attorney General’s taskforce on safe schools, and as part of a research group on restorative justice organized by the US Department of Justice.

He has been described by his peers as being passionate and committed to saving the lives of children, one mediation at a time. And as he draws his inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King and the quotation on memorials which states, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Steve sees mediation as a tool that spans from the global down to the community and individuals. Knowing that conflict is an inevitable part of the human experience, Steve sees two solutions” solve conflicts with empathy or with punitive measures such as war and jail. He knows mediation works and works to advocate its use.

However, he also knows that no man is an island. He thanks the many people who helped him through the years work toward peace and justice. “I may have been the drum major, but they were the band,” he says of his work with thousands of volunteers over the years.

Steve plans to use this award to inspire the “current band” to continue to move forward with peacemaking efforts. “Steve is an inspiration to us all. He is always working in the interest of peace and trying to inspire and lead those around him to work toward that end as well. He inspires me every time I work with him,” said Heather Wellman who works with Steve on the MBB congress planning.