- Area:
- London
- Programme:
- Reaching Communities
- Release date:
- 14 4 2009
A West London charity that brings together victims and offenders to try and bring closure for the victim and reduce re-offending is being awarded over £190,000 by the Big Lottery Fund, announced today.
Confidential And Local Mediation’s (CALM) Restorative Justice Project, which enables victims to communicate to offenders the real impact of their crime is awarded the grant as part of BIG’s Reaching Communities programme that aims to build stronger communities.
West London charity CALM is awarded £193,069 to continue and expand the Restorative Justice Project over five years. The project works by bringing together victims and offenders and other affected parties including family, initially through letter writing and at direct meetings. The process gives the victims a chance to communicate to offenders, and for the offenders to take responsibility for their crime and have the opportunity to apologise.
Fiona Shipley, CALM, said: “It means so much to CALM that the support from the Big Lottery Fund will enable the Restorative Justice Project to continue its innovative work. It facilitates offender/victim restorative justice to adults in West London, helping offenders to integrate back into the community and victims the opportunity to get closure. It provides support to the police in West London, managing their conditional caution programme by supporting offenders to fulfil the condition of writing a letter to the victim.”
Restorative Justice is a theory of criminal justice that focuses on crime as an act against the individual or community rather than the state. CALM will work with those referred to them by the police, victim support, housing associations, Wormwood Scrubs Prison and local community groups.
In addition CALM’s Restorative Justice Project has evolved into preventative measures by providing workshops for young people in schools. The workshop “An Insiders Guide to Prison, the Get Real Talk” encourages young people to consider the negatives of crime, the harsh realities of life inside prison and negative long-term consequences on release. This initiative has been developed as a response to the community’s concern over the escalating crime between young people.
Debbie Pippard, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for London, said: “This project will be extremely worthwhile for both victim and offender as it helps both parties to more forward in their lives and look towards a more positive future. In the long-term this project will also have a positive effect on the local communities of West London it operates in and BIG is pleased to be able to support it through the Reaching Communities programme.”
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- Under Reaching Communities, the Big Lottery Fund awards grants between £10,000 and £500,000 to projects that offer people better life chances, build stronger communities, develop improved rural and urban environments and improve health and well being.
- The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
- BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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