In conversation with Gary Stephenson
Why me?’s Trevor Watson spoke to Gary Stephenson, the Chief Executive of Restorative Solutions.
Their 6 minute interview on Zoom is below:
Key points
- Restorative Solutions provide restorative services to Police and Crime Commissioners, do a lot of work in Violence Reduction Units, and work in education and health as well. They see restorative approaches as a problem solving tool for many different circumstances.
- Their service sites across the country have faced a big social and professional change due to COVID-19 and lockdown. But they have continued offering restorative conferences remotely and demand is still high.
- They have had a lot of cases which are related to COVID-19 restrictions. For example, they have dealt with domestic violence cases, and other household and neighbourly disputes.
- Gary’s long term worry is about the financial implications of the crisis. He thinks that there will inevitably be economic consequences and that Restorative Justice might be an easy thing for funding to be cut for.