RESTORATIVE PRACTICES: Helping people build a better future

Robert Lamden explains how Sacro are using restorative approaches to bring positive change.

One of the underlying principles within Sacro is the belief in people’s capacity for change. We support both victims of crime and those within the criminal justice system, helping them move beyond the offence in the past, to build a better future. This can be seen in the work we do with many of our service users, whether they are survivors of domestic abuse, young adults in the youth justice system, or women leaving custody after serving a prison sentence. These are but three examples of over 40 services Sacro provides across Scotland. Sacro has been supporting people to help them change for fifty years and we firmly support restorative practice.

We use a restorative approach in our Youth Justice services, working with the young person, helping them realise that no crime is victim-less, and building their awareness of the impact on their victim of their actions. We use a restorative approach in working with perpetrators of hate crime, through our STOP service in North and South Lanarkshire. And we have a proud history of working with the Procurator Fiscal Office in providing a Restorative Justice (RJ) service for adults, as a diversion from prosecution. Sacro’s Restorative Justice service at one time was available in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, Aberdeen and Shire. For many years Sacro led the way in Scotland in the running of RJ services and helped support research and inform government thinking. 

Today, we actively participate in the Restorative Justice Stakeholder Group within the Scottish Government and are currently working with them to help achieve the ambition of having Restorative Justice available to anyone regardless of where they live in Scotland by 2023.  

Sacro provides accredited, practical training in restorative practice and has trained dozens of workers across the organisation, and from other agencies, over the years. Sacro has helped the development of best practice in Scotland through its involvement and support of the RJ Forum. The RJ Forum is a network of organisations that supports the promotion and use of RJ in Scotland. Members include Scottish Government, three universities, Scottish Prison Service, Crown Office, together with other statutory bodies and third sector organisations.

Job opportunities, together with volunteering vacancies, are advertised on our website www.sacro.org.uk 

Robert Lambden, Project Support Worker, Scottish Community Mediation Centre