A local mediation business will begin the new year with some new functions.

Summit Conflict Resolution and Trainings located at Etter Drive in Nicholasville will begin offering mediation services for civil, family, divorce and eldercare in January through The Jessamine County Mediation Center. 

Summit is one of the few organizations that mediates Eldercare, when family members make decisions together regarding and elder — such as a parent or grandparent. Summit has their own Eldercare Specialist, Tonya R. Howe.

“When it comes time to do something to help mom or dad, the siblings rarely agree,” said Dani Vandiviere Ph.D. and CEO of Summit. “The responsibility usually falls on one person and they get so burnt out. So we try to help the rest of the family figure that out.”

Summit also offers workshops for families, including marriage and divorce, parenting and life coaching.

“We’ve been doing a lot of workshops and helping businesses with them building,” Vandiviere said. “Anything that has to do with conflict resolution.”

Vandiviere is also a part of the F.I.T. program (Families in Transition). She teaches children how to cope with the changes that come with difficult situations such as divorce.

“The children are usually the ones who get left out of the process and they don’t know what is going on,” Vandiviere said. “No one thinks to sit down and talk to the child.”

The motto of Summit is, “Be Heard.”

“Everyone needs to be heard, and that is where a lot of conflicts come from,” Vandiviere said. “Everyone knows what buttons to push and once they start pushing them, then no one listens anymore.”

One of the things about mediation, she said, is to learn the skill of being able to sit down and talk issues over instead of taking it to court.

“Most people have to go to Lexington,” Vandiviere said. “For Jessamine County and surrounding counties, it is important that they do not have to get in touch with an attorney to have a mediation. Attorneys are fighting for their client but mediators try to take the fighting out of it.”

Summit services are confidential and they offer corporate services, like leadership building, sensitivity training, Lunch and Learn seminars and customized training courses. All of the training have been certified by the American BAR Association.

“Everyone should mediate before they litigate,” Vandiviere said.