About
Community Mediation Services began in 1983 as a non-profit Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) that assisted people who caused harm to take responsibility and meet with the person(s) who were harmed, if they agreed to meet, to talk about what was needed to make things right and repair the harm if possible.
About 2014 VORP chose to add a doing business as name, Community Mediation Services (CMS) to help Polk County residents recognize that CMS assisted more than those who recognized themselves as victims or offenders.
Not only did Community Mediation Services do Victim Offender mediation (now called Restorative Justice Dialogues) It also assisted community members resolve their disputes about noise, property lines, barking dogs and a whole laundry list of other types of disputes. It was and still is a policy not to charge for our mediation services
About 2014 VORP chose to add a doing business as name, Community Mediation Services (CMS) to help Polk County residents recognize that CMS assisted more than those who recognized themselves as victims or offenders.
Not only did Community Mediation Services do Victim Offender mediation (now called Restorative Justice Dialogues) It also assisted community members resolve their disputes about noise, property lines, barking dogs and a whole laundry list of other types of disputes. It was and still is a policy not to charge for our mediation services
Our Leadership
Our current Executive Director is Ken Braun. He was asked to take on this role in January of 2005 and has been in this position since. Ken is the 5th person to hold this position in the history of the organization. As a non-profit organization, Community Mediation Services is governed by a Board of Directors. Led by attorney, Tony James (President) Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst (Vice President), local business owner Heidi Mackay (Treasurer), attorney Matthew Jarvis (Secretary), retired Police Officer, Perry Lowe, and local business owner Jerry Moran.