In 1996 a group of Douglas County community partners came together to plan a community mediation program. Those partners included county mental health representatives, court staff, the Juvenile Department director and many other community agency directors. The following year (1997) a court related eviction mediation program was established under the auspices of Douglas County Neighbor to Neighbor.

 

In 1997, newly elected Coos County Judge Paula Bechtold convened a planning meeting with the intent of establishing a mediation agency in Coos County. That agency, Bay Area Mediation, began working in small claims and residential eviction courts in 1998.

 

Both programs functioned separately until 2003 when they merged and became Coos Douglas Neighbor to Neighbor, and has operated as an Oregon nonprofit corporation and is a charity recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS under Section 501(c)(3).

 

Since their inceptions, the two agencies have worked in the civil courts providing pre-hearing mediation services in FED/Residential Eviction and Small Claims courts. Both entities also developed other mediation services for their communities. Over time, those have included Juvenile Victim Offender Meetings, manufactured home park mediation, parent-adolescent mediation, peer mediation programs in schools, foster family mediation services, family placement mediation, conflict resolution and violence prevention for grade schools. The most recently added service is dialogue facilitation for groups.