Children & Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ)
How CYCJ is supporting Restorative Justice – To support the vision set out in their Restorative Justice Action Plan:
“That Restorative Justice is available across Scotland to all those who wish to access it, and at a time that is appropriate to the people and case involved.”
The Scottish Government have asked The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) and Community Justice Scotland (CJS) to lead a Restorative Justice (RJ) Test Case Project 2024/25. They are recruiting RJ cases involving children and/or adults from across Scotland, involving a range of harm types, and hope to gather key learning in respect of information-sharing, partnership working, risk assessment and the tailoring of RJ to individual needs. You could be delivering RJ services, or you could be working with individuals (or communities) harmed and/or responsible for harm associated with offences and feel they could benefit from a Restorative Justice process. Funding is available to deliver RJ cases and evaluation work with CYCJ/CJS. If you have any questions or would like an informal chat about the project, please contact lauren.emmerson@strath.ac.uk or laura.wylie@communityjustice.scot
About Restorative Justice – Restorative Justice is value-led and focuses on the following questions: What has happened? and What is it that matters to each of you that needs to be restored? It focuses primarily on the specific act of harm that has brought the parties together and the subjective experience, understanding the wishes of each person affected by the harm.
The animation above helps to explain what Restorative Justice is.
In working towards achieving this vision, the Scottish Government commissioned CYCJ to conduct research with children, young people and families to explore their awareness, understanding and attitudes to Restorative Justice. The findings were published in the report Views Of School Children on the Use of Restorative Justice In Scotland. Through this, key messages from children and young people informed the Restorative Justice information sheets below:
