Building Together: A Community Impact Project with Leadership Howard County

We are thrilled to share that MCRC has been chosen as a host for a Community Impact Project with Leadership Howard County. This project is an opportunity to put into practice the values that shape all of our work: collaboration, trust, and care for one another.

At MCRC, our volunteers approach mediation and restorative facilitation in pairs, working side by side in a co-mediation and co-facilitation model. We believe that having two facilitators bring balance and neutrality, making sure each participant feels heard, seen, and respected. While one may guide the conversation, track agreements, or observe body language, the other may focus on emotional cues or the overall flow of dialogue. Together, they guide difficult conversations with safety, cultivate trust, and honor differences with attention and care.

Our team approach among MCRC volunteers brings together diverse skills, perspectives, and identities, creating a richer understanding and a more responsive approach to cultural, relational, and power dynamics. We aim to model collaboration at its best: listening closely, sharing leadership, offering mutual support, and working in genuine cooperation. After each dialogue, co-facilitators take time to reflect and debrief, supporting one another and holding each other accountable. In this way, they shape a space where difficult conversations can unfold safely, trust can take root, and differences are met with care and attention.

One of the aspects we are most excited about in this project is that it allows us to extend these principles to our volunteer management. Most volunteer management approaches focus on supporting individuals, yet our work depends on volunteers functioning as a team and as a community. By developing pathways and strategies that strengthen collective support, we can better nurture shared responsibility, collaboration, and trust among our volunteers. This is rare in volunteer management and it reflects the core of how we approach our work in every mediation, dialogue, and community engagement.

We are deeply grateful for this partnership with Leadership Howard County. We look forward to seeing how this project will strengthen our volunteer teams, deepen the impact of their work, and enrich the ties that bind our community together.