Make Amends and Restorative Justice
Make Amends is an award winning Victim Support commissioned service for Devon and Cornwall, which delivers Restorative Justice across this area. The service provides support to people who have been affected by crime, conflict, anti-social behaviour or harm caused by the actions of others.
Restorative Justice creates opportunities for people who have been harmed, or otherwise impacted by the actions of others, to communicate, directly or indirectly, with those who are responsible for that harm, in order to get answers to their questions and to explain the effect that the incident has had on them. It gives those who accept responsibility for the harm, an insight into the real impact of their actions on the person affected, their friends and family.
Circles South West’s involvement with Make Amends began when we delivered training, to staff from a variety of organisations, about working with people who have sexually harmed, including a number of staff from Make Amends. We were subsequently invited to provide regular supervision to the team in cases involving sexual offending or harmful sexual behaviour.
As an organisation whose work is founded on Restorative Justice principles and which uses volunteers drawn from the community to help work directly with those convicted of sexual offences, or who have otherwise engaged in HSB, with a view to protecting the community and to preventing further victims of this type of behaviour, there is a real synergy between the work of Circles South West and that of Make Amends. It was because of this synergy and the relationship between our two organisations that we were delighted to be invited to be interviewed for a video promoting the work of both Circles South West and Make Amends in delivering Restorative Justice solutions in Devon and Cornwall.
You can watch the video here
