Earlier this month, Pamela Morrison and Lauren Emmerson, two Practice Development Advisors with CYCJ, attended the Restorative Justice Council (RJC) Annual Conference 2024, “Paving the Way to a Restorative Future,” in Cardiff. Now back at CYCJ, they’ve taken time to reflect on their experience and have each shared their insights in a blog post. Read on to discover more about their journey and key takeaways.
Dragons, Daffodils and Restorative Justice – Pamela’s Perspective
Having worked in the Restorative Justice arena in Scotland on and off for nearly 20 years (!!) I am always keen to learn from other countries and cultures about different restorative practices and processes. I was, therefore, delighted to have the opportunity to travel to Cardiff (the home of the red dragon) for the Restorative Justice Council (RJC) Annual Conference 2024 “Paving the way to a restorative future”, a 2-day conference with both in person and online elements.
I travelled with my colleague Lauren who joined the RJ team in May so it was good to use the conference as an opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the restorative world and get to know each other better. Lauren’s enthusiasm, fresh ideas and new way of thinking really helped me absorb the learning from the conference and create ideas for us to pave the way to a restorative future, as the conference aimed!
Prior to the conference, we were lucky to meet up with a local organisation, Media Academy Cymru, an award-winning organisation supporting children and young people to achieve their full potential, where we met Nick and his amazing team. It was brilliant to hear some of the creative work they are currently involved in including programmes to support children to become peer mentors and engage huge numbers of children across Wales. Unfortunately, however, it would seem that they are a bit “stuck” in the area of restorative justice highlighting a number of the same issues that we are facing in Scotland. Addressing these issues through engaging discussion and shared passion was really helpful though and I left feeling invigorated and hopeful for the next steps.
The following day we attended the RJC conference where it was immediately apparent that we were sharing the space with like-minded and driven people from all across the UK. We learned about restorative schools, community projects and restorative justice as part of the justice system with every speaker engaging and eager to share their messages and learning. Throughout the day we regularly used restorative circles to share our thinking and reflections as a group which allowed us to gain other perspectives and widen our networks. Notably for me, we discussed the use of language and agreed that restorative justice could benefit from a re-branding to help support the understanding of the real benefits of the approach, something that individually I have been exploring for some time. This is something that I will continue to explore so stay tuned.
After a busy day learning and networking, in the evening Lauren and I had the opportunity to explore some of the local sites (including a lovely meal in Daffodil and a view of Cardiff Castle and enjoy the mild weather before heading back to Glasgow to reflect on our experience and continue paving the way to a restorative future in Scotland.
Reflections on Six Months at CYCJ and the Restorative Justice Council Conference – Lauren’s Perspective
This month’s Restorative Justice Council’s annual conference “Paving the Way to a Restorative Future” coincided with the six-month milestone of my arrival at CYCJ. It was a timely opportunity to test my learning from the past six months in a wider context. I’ve spent much of my time so far connecting with people across Scotland, and beyond, mapping out the current RJ landscape whilst gathering a collective sense of the issues and barriers that prevent restorative justice from becoming a commonly understood and accessible pathway for those affected by the harm of crime; ultimately the Scottish Government’s vision for Scotland.
It was Restorative Justice’s strong evidence base and relationship-focussed principles that drew me to this post in the first place, so it was no surprise to hear impactful stories of individuals and communities echoed throughout the two-day conference in Cardiff, Wales. On day one we heard stories of schools subject to ‘special measures’ in England, and deeply divided communities in Northern Ireland, transformed by community-led restorative work.
Day two, which was delivered online, brought moving stories from individuals and families, both those harmed and those responsible, who had experienced transformative healing and post-traumatic growth as the result of a restorative process. One man reflected on the frightened boy he had been, lashing out and lost in the world, and how, with the benefit of restorative justice, he had been supported to form a new identity as a man who feels valued and safe. However, what stopped me in my tracks was one woman’s harrowing account of her determined, but ultimately failed, efforts to seek answers and the opportunity to process her distress resulting from an attack on her son. At every door she knocked the answer was that RJ was simply not available in her area or in her circumstances. The real-life impact of patchy and inconsistent restorative justice services is laid bare.
In the context of such compelling evidence of RJ’s transformative power (not to mention the tireless commitment of so many over successive decades), I ask myself why Restorative Justice is not more widely embedded. I don’t have the answers. However, I felt reassured that the communities of practitioners, policymakers, academics and those with lived experience gathered in Cardiff are all wrestling with the same dilemma. The questions shared included; how do we communicate and promote RJ, and more broadly restorative practices, effectively to the wider world? Does it almost need a rebranding? And, how do we support peer engagement and community-led restorative approaches to promote greater sustainability and diversity in RJ?
It all led to me wondering how, in the context of a values-driven, relationship-based model, do we measure success in a world that relies on data collection to accountably resource services? Especially, with a model that delivers on both promoting recovery from harm and supports reduction in recidivism.
Again, there are no easy answers, but even small steps feel important. As part of CYCJ’s support of the Scottish Government’s vision for RJ in Scotland, I am facilitating a test case project recruiting and monitoring RJ cases, involving children, across Scotland. We hope to learn from existing services about how RJ works and how that learning can be used to develop services more widely across Scotland.
Watch this space….
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