Inclusive Restorative Justice during COVID-19

Why me? secured funding from the London Community Response Fund for the development of Restorative Justice resources for people affected by crime and the professionals supporting them. 

The fund was made available following the COVID-19 outbreak, in order to support people who were affected by the ongoing pandemic and ran up until August 2020. 

This project aimed to ensure that online Restorative Justice services were accessible, safe and met the needs of those affected by crime, especially the more vulnerable and those with protected characteristics. 

The following key activities were part of this project:

  1. A restorative listening forum to hear the experiences of BAME people affected by racism from the criminal justice system and the police. Our forum was held on 25 June 2020 and we will shortly publish the outcomes from the event.
  2. The development of a Virtual Restorative Justice good practice guide.
  3. Our regular online forums for restorative services, practitioners and youth justice services.
  4. We ran a learning event on adapting restorative processes for online delivery with presentations from services working with young people, the commercial and civil mediation sector as well as learning from our own mock online restorative process. A recording of the event can be purchased by contacting us on info@why-me.org.

Virtual Restorative Justice: Good practice guide goes into detail about the considerations which facilitators should take into account when managing an online restorative process. From which platforms to use, to troubleshooting technical issues, to ensuring the conversation feels genuine – this guide covers everything facilitators will need to think about in close detail, with video clips to help demonstrate these points.

If you would like more information about our project or would like to share your experiences of facilitating Restorative Justice online, please contact Linda Millington on linda.millington@why-me.org.

More than ever before people and communities need safe places to be heard, listen to each other, and come up with their own solutions to conflict. Restorative Justice offers just that. This funding from London Emergency Response Fund is going towards the development of restorative work so we can reach people affected by criminal and other harmful behaviour both online and in person.

– Lucy Jaffé, Director of Why me?.

© 2024 Why me? Charity no. 1137123. Company no. 6992709.