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Need help settling a dispute, but don’t want lawyers involved? A new, free mediation service in Windsor and Essex County is ready to lend a hand.

Community Mediation Windsor-Essex launched Tuesday with an arsenal of 20 trained volunteers ready to clear up disagreements at no cost to the parties butting heads.

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“We’re here to teach folks how to resolve a conflict,” Family Services Windsor-Essex executive director Joyce Zuk said at the organization’s launch event. “Instead of litigating an issue, we can bring two parties together in a way that might preserve their relationship.”

The new organization was born from a collaboration between Family Services Windsor-Essex, the Windsor-Essex Bilingual Legal Clinic, and St. Clair College. It’s been five years in the making, and no other free service like it exists in the region, Zuk said.

“This is very different in that it’s a community clinic,” Zuk said. “Our clinic is a voluntary clinic — the decisions and the support of the mediators would not be binding on the two parties.”