It’s just another Thursday night at the Conflict Center, where defiant stares are slowly softened into smiles of empathy and business as usual is often a little unusual.
Scattered across the floor are purple dots, surrounded by a small encampment of teenagers slouched in chairs, working hard to look cool. The same counselor who moments ago was tossing a stuffed animal around the classroom while assigning silly nicknames to the kids now looks from behind his Buddy Holly eyeglasses and wants to play a game.
A game is going to resolve conflict? Make anger evaporate? How exactly? This crowd, populated by adolescents feeling persecuted and parents feeling resentment, is a tough sell.
But 30-year-old counselor Carlos Sandoval adjusts his black-rimmed glasses, steps into the skepticism and begins a game called “Have you ever ?”
He wants everyone to pose a question to the entire room, and opens the discussion by saying something that speaks to the heart of many teenagers: “Have you ever talked back to authority?”
Here is where the purple dots play a role. If the answer is yes, you step up to the dot.
The room comes alive with feet shuffling in response to the questions, some amusingly playful, some surprisingly tough.
“Have you ever played a sport?”
“Have you ever used drugs or alcohol underage?”
“Have you ever been to Kansas?”
“Have you ever been arrested?”
With shared nods and grins of recognition, the teenagers begin to decide there might actually be merit in this eight-week course, often mandated by a principal or judge.
“To make that connection between peers is really important,” Sandoval says when the 90-minute session ends. “It’s great when you see them realize: ‘I have to rely on these other people, because they’re in this with me.’ ”
The Conflict Center, in north Denver, has taught communication skills, negotiation tactics and coping methods to deal with daily hassles for more than 20 years. The goal is to reduce levels of violence at school, work or home.
“The stresses of the pace of life we all live, especially in urban areas, leads to more conflict,” executive director Ron Ludwig says.
“A focus on youth has always been our most important mission, because we’re real big believers in prevention. If you’re going to change the way people deal with conflict and avoid violence, you have to start young.”
The agency, which has sought funding from the Post-News Season to Share campaign, serves more than 9,000 individuals of all ages on an annual basis.
“We have a saying at the Conflict Center,” Sandoval says. “Conflict is inevitable. Violence is not.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
The Conflict Center
Address: 4140 Tejon St., Denver
In operation since: 1987
Number served last year: More than 9,000 individuals; 75 percent are youths
Staff: 12
Yearly budget: $550,000
Percentage of funds directly to clients/services: 80 percent
