Why me? is a national charity that promotes Restorative Justice for everyone affected by crime and conflict. They celebrate good practice, highlight service gaps, do research and work with practitioners and decision makers. They work with police, probation services, restorative providers, community groups and others to improve understanding and access to Restorative Justice, as well as lobby the Government to make policy changes to unlock the RJ opportunity for more people affected by crime.

Why Me?’s proposal to ‘put the victims of retail crime first through restorative justice’ got off the ground in 2022. The project aims to provide victim-centred support for those affected by retail crime, to reduce reoffending and to make communities safer with the use of existing local restorative justice frameworks. Make Amends were a key figure in the stakeholder engagement stage of the project and as Why me? began to facilitate training and awareness sessions for local police and retail we were able to embed the processes for providing restorative work in retail crime cases into our practice model.

The Safer Plymouth project aims to tackle a range of issues through cultural and behavioural change to make public spaces safer and to see reductions in violence against women and girls and anti-social behaviour. Make Amends have taken an active role in delivering restorative work with people harmed by and responsible for anti-social behaviour under the ‘Safer Streets 4’ part of the project. We have been able to support participants in different kinds of cases all around the city to face, talk about and move on from these incidents with face-to-face restorative conferences and through community circles.

Make Amends went on to work on Safer Streets 5 in Torbay with more Community  Circle work.

Circles South West is the regional Charity that uniquely provides Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA/Circles) across South West England, an innovative community approach to reducing the risk of sexual reoffending and harmful sexual behaviour.  With the vision of ‘No More Victims’ of sexual abuse, our primary aim is to prevent further sexual harm by adults convicted of sexual offences and young people with harmful sexual behaviour, thereby preventing the profoundly damaging consequences for victims, their families and communities.

You can learn more by watching the videos from some of our partners about their involvement in restorative justice:

Corinne Picton from Together for Childhood (NSPCC)

Rebecca Wood from Woollcombe Yong Solicitors