COMMUNITY WELLNESS AND SAFETY

Commitment 4.3.2 – We will explore options for expanding beyond Yellowknife, the Mediation and Parenting after Separation and Divorce Program.

The Mediation and Parenting After Separation programs both support families experiencing separation or divorce.

Mediation – Family Law Mediation is an alternative to the traditional court system for resolving disputes related to child custody, access and support. The program was established in 2009, and allows parties to exercise a greater degree of control over their situation by working together to reach their own agreement. The program uses a roster of mediators to offer family law mediation services in person, by teleconference and by services such as WebEx and Skype. The program is available throughout the territory to parents. It is free for a maximum of nine hours, plus one hour of private pre-mediation for each parent.

The Mediation program is currently available across the NWT. Residents living in remote communities can access mediation services by phone and in some circumstances, over the internet. The Parenting after Separation program is offered in Yellowknife and in Behchokǫ̀. Since November 7, 2015, the workshop has been offered via webinar, and is available to residents across the NWT. The Department of Justice will continue to examine ways to promote and make the workshop more accessible to residents.

Parenting After Separation –Parenting After Separation is a free half-day workshop that focuses on building greater awareness in parents of the challenges they can expect, and the healthy responses they can provide when making parenting decisions after a separation or divorce. Effective April 1, 2010 the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories issued a practice direction requiring every Yellowknife resident commencing a family law proceeding (with a number of exceptions) to attend a Parenting After Separation workshop prior to filing the document commencing that proceeding.

The Parenting after Separation program is offered in Yellowknife and in Behchokǫ̀. Since November 7, 2015, the workshop has been offered via webinar, and is available to residents across the NWT. The Department of Justice will continue to examine ways to promote and make the workshop more accessible to residents.

Steps to expand both programs beyond Yellowknife included making the mediation program available in all communities (Milestone 1), offering the Parenting After Separation Program via webinar (Milestone 2), and launch a revised Parenting After Separation workshop manual (Milestone 3).

Related Mandate Commitments:

• Commitment 4.4.3 - We will seek to improve access to justice in the NWT, by expanding community legal outreach programs, making family law duty counsel services available to assist self-represented family members on first appearance in family court, and expanding public legal information on programs and services so that people know what help is out there and how to access it.