Empowering Children to Be Self-Advocates. Member Spotlight: Jerri Sutton
Jerri M. Sutton is the founder of Communication Advocacy and Mediation (CAM) Consulting Services, LLC, which focuses on exposing intrinsic potential through the provision of tools to empower current and future generations. Jerri is a newer member of MBBI; she found MBBI through a successful Google search for international mediation networks.
Authentic Mediation
To Jerri, authenticity is extremely important in life, being real and true to yourself allows people to encounter your genuine nature. She embodies over 20 years of motivational speaking and organizational management; she has managed non-profit programs, government initiatives, and corporate endeavors. She is a mediator on the 20th Judicial Circuit in the State of Florida and is a board member of the Mediation Advisory Council (MAC). MAC shows appreciation to the volunteer mediators across the 20th Judicial Circuit with by honoring them at a banquet. Thus, applauding their sacrifice of time to provide crucial mediation services throughout the Circuit. Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that Jerri wholeheartedly champions and supports.
Mediation is the greatest form of empowerment.
She has been sanctioned to teach on many subjects from First Time Homebuyer Courses to First Aid, CPR, and AED. She has developed presentations utilized to certify AmeriCorps members on diversity and citizenship to the successful recruitment of volunteers. These varied experiences represent the makeup of Jerri’s successful and holistic mediation career.
CAM and ACE
Jerri founded Communication Advocacy and Mediation (CAM) Consulting Services, LLC in 2016 to address the needs of her community: stronger communication, efficient advocacy, and streamlined mediation. Through CAM, she has written curriculum focusing on communication strategies, co-created a realistic board game on domestic violence, and mediates familial and children-based conflicts. The board game, The Economy of Odds, was inspired by the pervasive and simplistic mentality of “why don’t survivors of domestic violence just leave their partner?” There are countless financial, personal, emotional, familial, and mental reasons behind a decision that monumental, and her board game is demystifying this real process.
Alongside domestic violence victims, the community struggling with mental and physical limitations is often overlooked and must contend with a lack of resources. To that end, Jerri also founded the Academy for Capacity and Enrichment (ACE), which focuses on psychosocial support programming for the staff and clients in this underserved community. She has created emotional, physical, and experiential capacity building programs for group homes; programs on lifesaving skills from the American Red Cross to sensory enrichment programs like yoga, hiking, and exercise.
For information to either or both organizations, email Jerri at jsutton@camconhelps.com
Dependency Mediation and Parental Advocacy
Jerri is an active Dependency Mediator. Dependency Mediation provides the opportunity for parents, Departments of Children and Families, the Guardian ad Litem Program and potentially other relevant collaterals involved in a children-centered case to have a confidential and privileged discussion moderated by a mediator. The objective is to bring all parties together in a form of empowerment and self-determination to see if they can voluntarily reach and submit an agreement to the court for approval. Child Protection Mediation and Permanency Mediation are synonyms for this type of mediation.
Looking ahead, Jerri is looking to be a more active member of the Child & Youth Alternate Dispute Resolution Working Group (C&Y ADR WG). Jerri’s main passion is Parental Advocacy. Being the mother of three and grandma (Yaya) to two, she is strongly affected by the lack of parental involvement in the education of children. To that end, she is authoring a book to instruct parents on how to empower themselves and advocate for their children in the school system. Some of the barriers addressed are insecurity, a lack of pedagogy language skills, and previous negative academic experiences amongst others She desires to help parents realize and understand how they are a source and resource for their kids.
Throughout her career, Jerri has based her mediation career off this quote from Albert Einstein “NO problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
Article by Ben Lutz, MBBI Writer