Article by Scott Iwasaki for the Park Record (September 24, 2023)

Mountain Mediation Center is throwing a Pizza at the Pendry party.

The event, a fundraiser that runs from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, which will include food, drinks and information about the mediation center, will be held at the Pendry Park City at Canyons Village.

“A primary part of the fundraiser is to educate the community so people can become more aware of the services that we provide,” said Executive Director Gretchen Lee. “We are planning a short program, a sort of an overview, of our services, and we will break down our mission statement — prevent conflict, resolve disputes and build a more inclusive community.”

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Registration for the event is open at mountainmediationcenter.org.

The goal is for all parties to come to an agreement together so everyone can move forward.” Gretchen Lee, Mountain Mediation Center executive director

“While registration will raise funds, we always welcome donations,” Lee said.

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During the event, MMC staff and volunteers will also discuss the various programming MMC attaches to those three mission-statement prongs, Lee said.

Some of those programs include:

• Court and Community Mediation
• Landlord/Tenant Eviction Diversion
• Community Conversations with other organizations
• Neighborhood/HOA Non-compliance with local ordinances or Homeowners Association regulations — parking, pets, noise, fences, lights
• Parent/Teen Curfews — phone and social media use, substance use
• Schools Student — student/teacher conflicts, parent/school conflicts, truancy/attendance
• Small Claims Loan repayment — consumer/merchant disputes, landlord/tenant, contractor issues
• Victim/Offender Vandalism — property damage, theft, bullying

An additional program stems from a newly formed partnership with Leadership Park City Class 29, which set up what is called the “Let’s Talk” initiative, Lee said.

The program is a communication training program available to Summit County government officials, nonprofits and business leaders that is based on the belief that communication is the foundation of strong and healthy communities, according to Leadership Park City.

“We’ve been supporting Leadership with this project throughout, and we will take over the training at the conclusion of the class this season,” Lee said. “It fits in with our other training and our mission statement.”

Once the main presentation during Pizza at the Pendry wraps, attendees will have the chance to learn more about MMC’s individual programs.

“We’ll have stations set up where folks can go after the presentation if they have follow-up questions in these particular areas,” said Lee. “MMC’s staff and board will be in attendance to answer all those questions.”

Mountain Mediation Center’s history starts in 2005 when it was first established as a nonprofit according to Lee.

“For many years, we operated primarily in small-claims court, providing state-court roster mediators for small-claims justice court and small-claims appeals in the Third District Court,” she said. “We still do that, but we’ve expanded greatly.”

All of MMC’s mediators are trained, third-party neutrals that help facilitate conversations and resolve conflicts, said Lee, who is a trained attorney.

“The goal is for all parties to come to an agreement together so everyone can move forward,” she said.

Right before the onset of COVID-19, the nonprofit installed a new board of directors, Lee said.

“They did a communitywide needs assessment,” she said. “As a result of the findings, we formed a community mediation program, where we can offer mediation services on a sliding scale and in Spanish to the community.”

The coronavirus also opened another mediation opportunity for MMC, Lee said.

“Right after COVID hit, we got inundated with landlord/tenant cases, so we shifted to help,” she said. “A lot of the work we do now is in that arena.”

MMC created a comprehensive “eviction diversion” program, Lee said.

“The goal is to avoid tenant eviction, because neither the tenant and landlord, especially the tenant, want to get into that,” she said.

One of the reasons for MMC to host its first fundraiser in 18 years, is due to the program expansions, Lee said.

“We operate on a small budget of $200,000 a year, and we are so dependent on our volunteers,” she said. “We’ve been able to operate with a fairly limited staff, but we’re to the point of our programming where we need to bring more staff on to deal with our growth that is meeting the needs in the community.”

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