About

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 set the stage for conflict prevention and peaceful conflict resolution in the U.S. by calling for community mediation as an intervention at the earliest stage of conflict. During the farm crisis of the 1980’s, mediation became more formalized in the Midwest and other areas of the U.S. and became more widely used in Nebraska. In 1991, Nebraska passed the Dispute Resolution Act which established a mediation center network that insured access to mediation in all 93 Nebraska counties.

Rather than hiring mediators to be a part of the court system, officials opted to establish a network of six stand-alone non-profit centers that would be approved by the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Office of Dispute Resolution and would be monitored by a Counsel appointed by the Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.

On September 13, 1991, The Panhandle Mediation Center was organized as a 501(c)3 nonprofit serving Western Nebraska as a part of that network. On January 5, 1998, our name was changed to The Center for Conflict Resolution. On July 14, 2009, we became Mediation West. Each quarter we report to the Advisory Council and Office of Dispute Resolution, and we are recertified each year to continue operating as an approved center.