New York – The JAMS Foundation’s Eighth Annual Warren Knight Distinguished Service Award will be presented to New York Peace Institute, along with a $25,000 grant. The award recognizes the work New York Peace Institute has done to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict in New York and communities worldwide. The organization received the award at the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference in New York.
Named in memory of JAMS Founder, the Warren Knight Distinguished Service Award and grant recognizes the work of extraordinary individuals and organizations in advancing collaborative forms of dispute resolution and the peaceful resolution of conflict.
New York Peace Institute, one of the largest and most comprehensive mediation centers in the country, provides individuals, organizations and communities around the world with resources to peacefully, creatively and durably resolve conflict. With more than 300 committed volunteers and more than 30 years of experience, New York Peace Institute offers a wide array of mediation and facilitation trainings and services, empowering thousands of individuals from all walks of life to find constructive solutions to their own disputes. New York Peace Institute primarily serves the city of its namesake, but has also worked with NASA, the United Nations, and in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. With funding from the JAMS Foundation, New York Peace Institute is currently expanding its specialized mediation training program for NYPD officers throughout New York City.
The JAMS Foundation is proud to support New York Peace Institute’s efforts to promote creative and successful approaches to de-escalating and resolving conflict. In light of the continuing unrest we’re seeing in so many communities, it’s important that organizations such as New York Peace Institute have the opportunity to increase their efforts to resolve disputes and improve relations.
- David Brandon, Managing Director of the JAMS Foundation
I want to thank the JAMS Foundation for its support of the work we’re doing to improve relations in New York City and beyond. This grant will allow us to continue to build community-police relations, disrupt the school to prison pipeline, and help thousands of people find creative ways to move forward in the wake of conflict. We are grateful for the support from and partnership with JAMS.
- Brad Heckman, CEO of the New York Peace Institute
Hon. H. Warren Knight (Ret.) was the founder of JAMS, which he created in January 1979. Judge Knight was considered a pioneer in the ADR and legal communities and was instrumental in introducing and furthering ADR, including mediation and arbitration, within the legal community in California and throughout the United States.
New York Peace Institute began in 1981 as a program of Safe Horizon, a leading victims’ services organization, and became an independent organization in 2011. As New York’s largest civilian peaceforce, its mission is to build peace and prevent violence in the city and beyond.
About the JAMS Foundation (www.jamsfoundation.org)
The non-profit JAMS Foundation is the largest private provider of ADR-related grants in the world. The Foundation was established in 2002 by JAMS, the largest private provider of alternative dispute resolution services worldwide, and is funded by JAMS mediators, arbitrators and employee associates who contribute a percentage of their income. The JAMS Foundation has provided more than $6 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its nearly 300 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s most important cases.