Volunteer Restorative Justice Facilitators Needed in West Yorkshire

ARE YOU A GOOD LISTENER, NON-JUDGEMENTAL, CONFIDENT AND ABLE TO WORK ON YOUR OWN INITIATIVE?

WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMMUNITY?

If the answer is yes, and you live in West Yorkshire and you are over 18 years old, then why not become involved in this exciting Restorative Justice Project. You will gain valuable knowledge and skills in interviewing victims and offenders, facilitating Awareness Courses, Restorative Justice Interventions, and partnership working with professionals within the Criminal Justice System.

It will be your role as a Volunteer Restorative Justice Facilitator to interview those that have been harmed and facilitate the Hate Crime Awareness Course and the Violent Crime Awareness Course. Upon experience training in and delivering these courses, volunteers can then progress and attend a further two day Restorative Justice Facilitator training course to become a Restorative Justice Practitioner. Once trained, volunteers will be able to work with victims and offenders to facilitate face to face conferences or correspondence to help both victims and perpetrators move on positively with their lives. You will also be involved in facilitating meetings for those involved in neighbourhood conflict.

This opportunity could be helpful for those considering a career in this increasingly growing area of work or in other areas of the Criminal Justice System. There may also be the opportunity to be accredited for the BTEC Level 3 in Restorative Approaches.

If this is something that you are interested please contact 

Kate Brooksbank at rjwestyorkshire@restorativesolutions.org.uk

You will then be invited to attend an Information Session in September to find out more.

Closing Date: 10th September 2021

Job Description

Job Title: Restorative Justice Volunteer Practitioner

Reports to: Restorative Justice Service Delivery Manager

Work Location: This role will involve volunteers contacting service users and visiting people in their own homes or at another location agreed by all participants. The courses will be run across West Yorkshire, however volunteers will be able to express their preference for specific districts if preferred. 

Purpose: As a Restorative Justice Volunteer Facilitator you will be trained in the 1 day foundation course. This will give you a basic knowledge of RJ. You will then attend an additional training course on the Hate Crime Awareness Course and the Violent Crime Awareness Course. This will equip you with the knowledge and skills to facilitate these two hour courses to offenders and to make the offer of RJ to victims. Upon experience of delivering these courses, volunteers can then progress and attend the two day Restorative Justice Practitioner training course to become a Restorative Justice Practitioner. Once trained, volunteers will be able to work with victim and offenders to facilitate face to face conferences. 

Hate Crime Awareness/Violent Crime Awareness Courses: Volunteers will be allocated cases, to work initially with a Lead Practitioner, by the RJ Service Delivery Team. You will make contact with the victim prior to the course to offer RJ and to see if they have any thoughts or feelings to be included in the course with the offender. You will then co-facilitate a two hour awareness course with the offender. After completion, you will feedback to the victim. Any resulting face to face meeting between the victim and offender will be facilitated by the Lead Practitioner with you observing. Once you have attended the additional 2 day facilitator course you can facilitate these conferences. 

Restorative Justice: Volunteer facilitators who have attended all three days of the Practitioner training course will be allocated cases, to work either in pairs or with a Lead Practitioner, by the RJ Service Delivery Team. Volunteers will undertake visits to both those that have been harmed and those responsible for causing that harm. Facilitators will explain the process and assess all participants. It is then the role of the facilitator to facilitate any direct face to face meeting or indirect communication. The outcome of the meeting will then be fed back to the RJ Service Delivery Team who will in turn report back to the referring officer. 

Key duties and Responsibilities: 

• Volunteers will be allocated cases using the Local Case Management System.  

• Volunteers will contact people who have been harmed and those that have caused the harm and arrange to speak with them and/or visit them at home/agreed venue. 

• Liaise with the Service Delivery Assistant to arrange a venue for the course. 

• Facilitate the Hate Crime Awareness Course and/or the Violence Awareness course which is a 2 hour session. 

• Feedback to victims the outcome of the course and record the contact on the ECINS Case Management system

• Undertake joint home visits to prepare participants for attending a face to face conference (if requested). 

• Carry out risk assessment and report to Service Delivery Manager any concerns

• Organise and visit any supporters that may attend the conference with either party (these may be other people affected)

• Liaise with the Service Delivery Assistant to arrange a venue for the face to face conference. 

• Contact all participants to confirm conference. 

• Co-facilitate conference (once attended the RJ facilitator training)

• Complete post conference report

• Send report to the Lead Practitioner along with outcome agreement.

• It is imperative that any volunteer has the ability to work on your own initiative, organise and prioritise workload, keeps to deadlines set, and has excellent time management.  

Time Commitment:  You should be able to commit to working at least 4 hours per month. You will also be expected to attend monthly group supervision sessions and individual one to one supervision. This is in addition to the initial training.   

Qualifications: Must have the ability to read and write to a good standard of English. This is due to the role requiring volunteers to read from a script, complete forms and access the ECINS Case Management System. 

All volunteers must have access to an email address and computer or device as they will need to access our Case Management System remotely.

Support: During the induction phase of this role, volunteers will attend a one day accredited Restorative Justice Awareness training course with Restorative Solutions. This will equip volunteers with the knowledge about Restorative Justice. Volunteers will then attend an additional 1 day training course on the Hate Crime Awareness Course and the Violence Awareness Course. Upon experience of delivering these courses, volunteers can progress and attend the two day Restorative Justice facilitator training course to become a restorative justice facilitator. We aim to offer this opportunity after 4-6 months.

All volunteer facilitators will be supported by the RJ Service Delivery team and regular one to one and group supervision will be offered.

Development opportunities: After completion of the three day Restorative Justice Facilitator course and with facilitator experience there may be the opportunities to attend further training around sensitive and complex cases, domestic abuse and RJ and harmful sexual behaviour and RJ course. 

Police Vetting: All volunteers will be subject to vetting by West Yorkshire Police. Previous convictions do not necessarily exclude people from this role, each case will be assessed on an individual basis. 

Expenses: Volunteers will be reimbursed with expenses and travel costs whilst undertaking this role. These will be in line with Restorative Solutions expenses policy. 

Age Requirement: 18 +