Country/region: Northern Ireland
Conflict: Religious and Political Conflicts
Organisation: TIDES Training
Field of work: Mediation and Conflict Resolution; Working with ex-combatant groups on Conflict Resolution; Restorative Practice. Training groups in Mediation and Conflict Resolution
John Carson is the Head of Mediations and Conflict Resolution for TIDES training. He joined TIDES in 2015 as a Trainer/Mediator. He comes from a community background and believes building strong stable communities promotes the building blocks to better community relations. He has a strong interest in assisting those individuals and communities who were affected by, and were engaged in, politically motivated violence to move forward.
He is a mediator who has a wealth of experience in the mediation field and manages some of the biggest mediation contracts in Northern Ireland. He has been involved in mediations in Northern Ireland around Parades, Flags, Bonfires, and other community tensions for some of the major Statuary agencies around these and other issues. He has also worked in the Restorative Practice field within Northern Ireland and on the UK mainland.
He also manages a team of round 30 Mediators directing them to areas where mediation has been requested. He also trains and works with would be mediators getting them their accreditation and some live first hand practice on cases where possible. He also works on neighbourhood cases which are on the rise due to restrictions that society has found itself into due to the current COVID outbreak.
John has recently been involved in a UNDP programme where TIDES hosted ex-combatants from the civil war in Lebanon and showed them first-hand experience of peace building process.
He is also running programmes in Kosovo involving training international participants in Conflict Resolution and Mediation. He also has a keen interest in doing more international mediation and restorative Practice especially in the USA around racism and within the gang culture. He also has a huge interest in helping others through mediation in conflict zones around the world and learning from the people on the ground.
John is also a certified conflict coach in the Cinergy model. One of his keen interests is fishing which he believes stabilizes the mind away from his work.