Editing Mediation (section)

===Community mediation===
Disputes involving neighbors often have no official resolution mechanism. Community mediation centers generally focus on neighborhood conflict, with trained local volunteers serving as mediators. Such organizations often serve populations that cannot afford to utilize the courts or professional ADR-providers. Community programs typically provide mediation for disputes between landlords and tenants, members of homeowners associations and small businesses and consumers. Many community programs offer their services for free or at a nominal fee.

Experimental community mediation programs using volunteer mediators began in the early 1970s in several major U.S. cities. These proved to be so successful that hundreds of programs were founded throughout the country in the following two decades. In some jurisdictions, such as California, the parties have the option of making their agreement enforceable in court.

In Australia mediation was incorporated extensively into family law [[Family Law Act 1975]] and the 2006 Amendments Mandatory,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2006A00046|title = Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006| date=July 2007 }}</ref> subject to certain exceptions, Family Dispute Resolution Mediation is required before courts will consider disputed parenting arrangements. The Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners who provide this service are accredited by the Attorney-General's Department.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ag.gov.au/FamiliesAndMarriage/Families/FamilyDisputeResolution/Pages/default.aspx|title = Family dispute resolution}}</ref>

[[Community accountability]] is a community-based strategy for a group of friends, a family, a neighborhood, etc. come together outside of the criminal justice system or any punitive system and hold people accountable as a community using [[transformative justice]], which may or may not include mediation.