Darlene Gamble traces her outstanding skills as a mediator back to her family life. Sometime along the line, she became her relatives’ go-to referee when inter-familial conflicts arose. And she loved doing it.
“Those skills came to me naturally,” Gamble says. “If there is a conflict in my family, everybody always calls me and gives me their side of the story. I have to be the one that is the peacemaker and say, ‘No, they didn’t mean it like that,’ or ‘Did you think about it this way?’ or `What if they mean this, this, and this?’ That’s what I have done my entire life.”
Those skills have come in handy in her role as a standout volunteer with the Anne Arundel County Conflict Resolution Center in Annapolis. Organization officials say that even though she’s not officially on staff, they consider her like a regular employee.
The 57-year-old Gamble, a retired federal website analytics specialist, mediates a variety of challenging cases and almost single-handedly manages the center’s outreach program. It’s even more remarkable that, aside from the extensive training she’s gotten as a volunteer since joining in 2017, she has no professional background in conflict resolution. Except with her relatives that is.
The center handles a variety of disputes. From one day to the next, these may include divorces, separations, disputes between neighbors, child custody cases, work-place, and family issues.
Most of these cases are either self-referrals or referrals by government agencies, civic organizations, the court system, and other nonprofits. The center’s method is called the co-mediation model, which uses two mediators in each session.
“Darlene really understands why mediation is so important,” says Kate Bohanan, an AACCRC board member. “She does a lot to make sure people who handle conflicts in non-constructive ways are made aware of mediation. Her strength is her enthusiasm. The amount of time she dedicates is unbelievable.”
The organization’s executive director, Georgia Noone-Sherrod, has so much confidence in Gamble that she even has her take her place at school district committee meetings that Sherrod is unable to attend.
Noone-Sherrod says Gamble’s value to the organization can actually be measured in dollars and cents. She points out that mediators working in the for-profit sector often charge relatively high rates—as much as $250 per case.
“There’s no way as a nonprofit we can afford to pay professionally trained mediators,” she explains. “Often times they are lawyers or attorneys who are doing settlement conferences. That’s what makes Darlene so valuable. She is a trained professional mediator that provides her services free of charge.”
Regardless of the outcome of a two-hour case session, Noone-Sherrod says Gamble, a Mitchellville resident, always comes out smiling. She mediates 20 to 30 cases a year.
“Everybody tells me I have a calming presence,” Gamble admits. “Even if you disagree with the other person, that’s fine. It’s okay. You don’t have to agree with everything. Just hear them out.”
Noone-Sherrod adds: “I haven’t had a complaint about her in three years.”
Gamble’s favorite cases involve working with children. She handles a lot of child custody cases and spends time visiting elementary and high schools talking to students about race relations and racial bias.
“Anything with children I have a passion for because I want them to have stability and consistency,” she says. “A lot of my cases are about parenting and planning. That’s when couples have separated and, now, they have to work out a plan on how they are going to parent their children. The parents have to decide how they are going to pick them up, when they are going to see them.”
She also volunteers as court appointed special advocate in Prince George’s County for children in foster care.
“I am the voice of the child when they go to court,” she says. “I also spend time with the child during the month (leading up to court) as part of the team to help keep services on track for the child.”
Yet another key component of her volunteer work at AACCRC is her community outreach to make more people aware of the organization and its services. She speaks at an event about once a month, talking with students at Anne Arundel Community College and local public schools.
Several county agencies—the Department of Aging and Disabilities, the Department of Juvenile Services, Anne Arundel County Police, and county Partnership for Children, Youth and Families—are also on her community outreach agenda.
“She is very good at creating relationships especially with people who aren’t familiar with the center,” Bohanan says. “She is an ambassador for us.”
