What We Do
RJS - What We Do
Restorative Justice Services was established in 1999 to work in partnership with the Probation Service, An Garda Síochána, victim advocate organisations and the community sector, to develop and provide restorative justice programmes i.e. Offender Reparation and Victim / Offender Mediation, in order to …
… deter members of the community from (further) offending by raising their levels of awareness and understanding with regard to the implications and effects of their behaviour on their victims, themselves, their respective families and the wider community
… offer victims the opportunity to communicate in a safe non threatening way with their offender with a view to receiving an apology, reparation, further information on the offence and its motivation, seek guarantees on future safety and commitments on future behaviour.
… offer greater levels of participation in the criminal justice system to members of the community affected by crime.
… promote partnership between all sectors working in the criminal justice system, in particular encouraging a greater level of involvement and sense of ownership of the criminal justice system amongst the community sector. We promote our work and those of our partner agencies by way of seminars, annual reports, all modes of media, website, information leaflets, education and training.
Promotion & Education
RJS has contributed speakers to many seminars and conferences hosted by agencies in the criminal justice, voluntary and education sectors. We welcome invitations to talk about our work and the opportunity to promote restorative justice as an effective and meaningful response to crime.
Training
RJS has a small but very committed and skilled training team.
In 2014 RJS commenced delivery of an Introductory Training Programme for all relevant personnel associated with the delivery of the Offender Reparation Programme i.e., Chairs, Caseworkers, Probation Officers and members of An Garda Siochana. The 25-hour programme covers relevant theory and practice issues, incorporating written work, group work and roles plays. Over 50 participants have completed the programme to date.
Since 2001 we have contributed to Post Graduate Mediation and Conflict Resolution courses UCD and Maynooth. RJS has also contributed trainers to seminars and in house training hosted by criminal justice agencies, the voluntary and education sector.
When first established RJS developed its own restorative justice facilitator-training programme and undertaken four rounds of recruitment to the service training over 30 members of the community in restorative practice, mediation and facilitation skills. The Training Programme includes contributions from the Probation Training Team, victim advocate and support organisations and other experts in the criminal justice field – both practitioners and academics.