The Cumberland Community Mediation Center (CCMC) recently received a $14,000 grant from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System - Urban Affairs and New Nontraditional Programs Unit (ACES-UANNP). Kevin H. Crenshaw '98, Legal Consultant for the ACES-UANNP, and Cassandra Adams, Director of the CCMC and Public Interest Program, spearheaded the collaboration. The grant will be allocated over a two-year period, during which Adams will help to bring alternative dispute resolution to Alabama's aging community.
The mission of the ACES-UANNP is to “provide learning opportunities to meet the needs of all urban and nontraditional audiences with a specific focus on limited resource families, underserved audiences, individuals and small enterprises.” The grant awarded to the CCMC is allocated from an Alabama A&M capacity-building grant entitled “Successful Aging Initiative: Community-Based Education to Promote Health and Asset Management for Alabama’s Older Adults.” Among other project goals, Adams will be responsible for helping to develop and implement a community mediation program with an emphasis on senior mediation, providing mediation training to ACES-UANNP representatives, and developing a community pipeline to announce the availability of community mediation services through local senior centers, community resources, and academic and legal outlets.
A lunch meeting regarding the collaboration between the ACES-UANNP and the CCMC was held at Cumberland School of Law on May 20. Representatives from ACES-UANNP were present, as well representatives from Cumberland School of Law and the greater Â鶹¹û¶³ community. The group brainstormed ideas, pooled resources and shared contact information in hopes of accomplishing much together over the next two years and beyond. “I am thrilled about this collaboration and I believe we are well on our way to developing and implementing a program that fully addresses the legal, financial, and health-related needs of some of Alabama’s most vulnerable individuals and families,” said Kevin Crenshaw ’98, Legal Consultant for the ACES-UANNP.
Pictured in photo from left to right: Tim Wolfe, Cassandra Adams, Constance Wilson, Nikkya Moore-Coleman, Polly Manuel, Maisha Freeman, Celvia Stovall, Ken England, Chanda Crutcher, David Hutchens, Denise Gregory, Kevin Crenshaw.