Following a pair of private and successful workshops on active listening, the Community Mediation Board of West Marin has announced two bilingual workshops designed to improve listening skills. The classes, scheduled for April 20 and 26 in Point Reyes Station, will be open and free to the community. “I do feel that going to the Latino community is something that is enormously important and quite necessary,” Sadja Greenwood, a retired doctor living in Bolinas and a founder of the board, said. “I don’t know how many communities in the United States are doing this.” The roughly 20-member mediation board, which has helped resolve conflicts through peaceful intervention since 1996, decided to broaden its reach after meeting with members of the West Marin empowerment training group Abriendo Caminos twice since August. Rebecca Porrata has been involved with the board since its conception and explained how they often go beyond mediating community strife. “The board doesn’t just handle disputes,” she said. “We wanted to give people tools on how you can go about active listening. A lot of people would say it’s easy, but it’s not. Sometimes we’re too busy with other things in our head. What we see is that people have a lot to say and when they’re heard, they feel better.” Melissa Nelken, a former law professor who joined the board last year, said she’s working to secure a grant to send up to three people to complete a bilingual conflict resolution training and receive a mediation certificate. If the upcoming workshops draw enough interest, the board could continue them with a series. Socorro Romo, program director for West Marin Community Services, has worked with the board since she herself took a training course during its earliest days. She has long advocated for more bilingual programming and said the active listening workshop that took place last fall was well received by the dozen or so participants. “After they attended, I heard they liked it and wanted to know how to be more involved,” Ms. Romo said. She hopes the board will promote itself beyond recent brochures announcing the workshops. “I believe they should do more advertising so that the Latino community knows there’s a group to help solve problems without going to court,” she said.