Karen Ralston (she/her)
Deputy Director - Practice and Participation Lead
As Deputy Director at the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), Karen supports and supervises the practice development and participation teams within CYCJ. As a committed and compassionate social work practitioner with over 35 years’ experience she ensures that children and young people’s voices and needs are pre-eminent and central to what we hope for their future. Karen participates, leads, and represents the organisation and deputises for the director in a range of national and local youth justice stakeholder’s groups including restorative justice, national taser advisory group, NYJAG, NYJAG Executive as well as other Scottish Government short life working groups. She always promotes the values, professional ethics, and standards integral to building and maintaining trusting relationships across organisations with external partners. She has embedded participation, evaluation and improvement into CYCJ’s practices and policies and promoted with partners.