July update – Contribute to the consultation before 4th Aug; new case study
Around 200 stakeholders attend Department of Justice/RJS4C consultations
Earlier in July, RJS4C collaborated with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Policy group to design and deliver two consultation sessions on the development of restorative justice services. Using slides to guide the conversation, these sessions sought stakeholders’ perspectives on the options outlined in a briefing presented to the Criminal Justice Strategic Committee in June. Participants considered the attributes of a successful restorative justice service and a range of options for development in Ireland, both within agencies, and in relation to new national structures. The Department has committed to using this information to inform a forthcoming policy proposal on restorative justice, which it aims to publish in Q4 of 2021.
If you would like to make a written submission to this consultation, please read the briefing linked above, and write to Timothy Hurley from the Department of Justice on TXHurley@justice.ie before August 4th.
New case study published
We are grateful to An Garda Síochána, the Kennedy Institute and Facing Forward for submitting a new case study, describing the use of restorative conversations to support dialogue among senior members of An Garda Síochána. We are still collecting new case studies, so please get in touch if you would like to work with us to develop and publish something based on your work.
For those of you interested in using RP to support dialogue among colleagues within organisations, you may also like our case study on using RP to resolve conflict within a community-based organisation, or our blog from Joe Power on using RP to maintain community among colleagues during COVID-19. Please do get in touch if you think you and your colleagues or organisation would benefit from using restorative practices to support dialogue internally – we would be happy to discuss and help with this!
Materials and opportunities of possible interest
- Dublin City Council are consulting on an Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy, a draft of which briefly mentions RP on p.11 – complete the survey here
- An open job opportunity with Le Chéile Mentoring as an administrator – closes on July 28th
- From RTÉ – Barbara Walshe, Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, speaking about forgiveness
- From the Irish Times – a theological perspective on RJ
- Restorative Practices Ireland are seeking members for new subcommittees on finance, governance, communications, quality assurance and research
- The new All-Party Parliamentary Group on RJ in the UK started its inquiry with evidence from academics and practitioners – follow the group here
- There are a couple of interesting looking training opportunities with Narrative4 and Ag Eisteacht
- The Wheel’s Training Links programme is open for applications – if any NGOs wanted to be a lead organisations in relation to (e.g.) RJ, RP or victims-related training, please let us know as we might be able to harness the RJS4C network to support you with this.