Meet the practitioner: Karen Holgate
This is an interview with Karen Holgate, Operations Manager at Victim Support.
What is your name?
My name is Karen Holgate, but I prefer to be called Kaz (I am definitely not a Karen!)
What is your job title?
My Job title is Operations Manager for projects. I manage teams of project workers across West Mercia and West Midlands. These projects currently include RJ, Modern Slavery, our Hate Crime project called ‘I am Me!’, Road Collision and our Volunteer Managers. We also have the only Victim Support charity shop which is located in Bewdley.
Who do you work for?
Victim Support.
How long have you been working in Restorative Justice?
I have been an RJ practitioner now for 11 years, I qualified as an RJ trainer in 2016 and have recently been accredited as an RJC approved RJ Supervisor.
What led you to start working in Restorative Justice?
In 2014 Restorative Solutions approached Victim Support to collaborate on a pre-sentence RJ pilot in Worcester. I worked for Victim Support, managing the Witness Service at Worcester Crown Court at the time. It was the first time I had heard of Restorative Justice and it fascinated me. I jumped at the opportunity to be trained as a volunteer practitioner.
What gives you the most satisfaction in your work?
As a practitioner, I love seeing the growth in people as they go through the process. There is often a point, particularly in a face to face conference when something shifts and that is so powerful. As an Ops manager I now have more influence within the organisation to influence change at a higher level and I am working hard to embed Restorative processes internally.
What do you consider to be the most challenging part of your work?
Making sure that Victims/the harmed are given information about RJ so they can make an informed choice. It is very frustrating when other professionals allow their own fear and opinions to influence whether a victim should be given the information that they are entitled to.
If you were appointed Secretary of State for Justice, what three things would you do?
(I can only think of one) – I would make RJ more commonplace; it needs to be talked about and encouraged from the top down so people know what it is, understand the processes and are aware of the impact it can have. RJ needs to be much more accessible. I do not understand why such a powerful process is still so underutilised in our society.
What three words do you most associate with Restorative Justice?
Communication, healing and people.
Tell us the story you use most often when you talk to people about Restorative Justice.
One of my very first cases was a burglary. It was an ideal case for RJ (and we don’t get many that are so ideally suited and straight forward). The victims (Harmed) were a husband and wife with small children and the Offender (Harmer) had been with a group of friends who had broken into a house, taken the car keys and stolen the family car. The impact on the family was huge. They had so many questions. They no longer felt safe in their home, they wanted to know if they had been followed home, or watched and were frightened that the offenders would return to take more. We decided on a face-to-face conference. While the Harmer was talking about what his thoughts had been since the incident, the husband became overwhelmed with emotion. The Harmer described how since the incident he had settled down with his girlfriend who was now expecting twins but due to his conviction was struggling to find work to support his new family. After listening to the impact his actions had on the victims and answering their questions the conversation started to flow more naturally, and this is where the magic happened. The husband could relate with the struggles of raising a young family and by the end of the conference he had offered the offender a job!
Thank you to Karen for sharing her thoughts with us. If you are a practitioner and are willing to be part of our ‘Meet the Practitioner’ series, get in touch via info@why-me.org!