MCC’s Law Center Continues to Assist Greater Lowell Community

In the face of ongoing and ever-changing challenges, the Middlesex Community College Law Center provides mediation services, consumer information, school-based violence prevention programs, and international conflict resolution training to the Greater Lowell community. MCC’s Law Center was one of the Consumer Mediation Programs awarded as part of a $2 million funding initiative by Attorney General Maura Healey.

“The Law Center has administered the Local Consumer Program (LCP) since 1990, opening approximately 27,000 cases and saving consumers over $7 million,” said Ursula Furi-Perry, J.D., MCC’s Executive Director, Law Center. “We are thrilled to continue working with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to provide assistance to consumers and are grateful for the opportunity and funding to support our work.”

Through the LCP, MCC’s Law Center helps community members handle issues they have with businesses, including those related to used cars, lemon laws, and airline ticket refunds. The Center assists consumers from the beginning of the process to the end, filing claims on their behalf and negotiating with businesses to reach a resolution.

Through mediation services, ­the Law Center helps all sides come to an agreement on their own terms. Working in partnership with local schools, Keilah Paquette, MCC Law Center Site Coordinator at Lowell’s Sullivan Middle School, has found that students, staff and teachers are better able to communicate with each other in a confidential, non-judgmental space.

“Communication, active listening, empathy and the ability to be non-biased go into being a mediator,” Paquette said. “All of those roles helped me to have successful mediations. I got to really see the effect that peer mediation has on students, and it made me feel good about being able to help them through their conflicts and become someone in the school that they trust.”

The program has received positive feedback from both students and staff. Everyone is able to speak and be heard about the issues that they have going on in their lives. The value of peer mediation in schools has increased because many conflicts are now starting over social media and text messaging, according to Yvette Cheeks, MCC Law Center Mediation Coordinator.

“This allows for a lot of misunderstandings and misinterpretations,” Cheeks said. “With the assistance of trained student mediators, interpersonal conversations can take place and students can share their emotions, feelings, wants and needs in an effort to resolve their conflicts. This is a social and emotional skill that is imperative and needs to be cultivated as youth move into adulthood.”

MCC’s Law Center strives to find ways to reach out to the community and work with the college. Many Middlesex Paralegal Studies students intern, mediate, and go on to work at the Law Center.

“It’s been a wonderful partnership with MCC’s Paralegal Studies department,” Furi-Perry said. “Almost everyone working in the Law Center is an MCC alumni.”