Restorative Justice Council’s 5th Annual Conference

The Restorative Justice Council (RJC) is the national, independent membership body for the field of restorative practice. Acting as the national voice for their membership, they advocate the widespread use of all forms of restorative practice, including restorative justice.

In celebration of the Restorative Justice Council’s 25th anniversary, the RJC held a conference to acknowledge the sector’s achievements, face up to the present challenges and imagine future possibilities. Belong took part in the conference, with Belong’s Head of Programmes leading a session on the impact of RJ in the prison system, contributing his expertise in managing Restorative Justice in custodial settings to a discussion on the transformational power of restorative justice for adults and young people.

Belong’s CEO was also invited to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Harnessing the power of Restorative Justice in National Policy’. You can find out more about events ran by the Restorative Justice Council here.

Howard League for Penal Reform’s Conference

The Howard League for Penal Reform are the world’s oldest prison charity, with a long history of bringing people together to advocate for penal reform.

In September 2022, Belong’s CEO took part in a panel discussion as part of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s conference, ‘Crime, Justice and the Human Condition: Beyond the cris(es) – reframing and reimagining justice”. You can read more about the event, including links to previous conference podcasts and videos, here.

Clink’s Annual Conference – Making Race and Justice Everybody’s business

It was an honour for Belong to have a stall at Clinks annual conference 2023. Clinks supports, promotes and represents the voluntary sector working with people in the criminal justice system and their families. Find out more

The Clinks annual conference, themed this year around ’Making Race and Justice Everybody’s business’ provided a platform for specialist members who are led by/for racially minoritised people to share their expertise on how to best support people from racially minoritised communities.

Belong used their stall to share art work from our service users, evaluation reports from our services, and to share our experiences working with racially minoritised communities.

Mint House

The Mint House is a networking center which seeks to raise awareness of restorative practice and to promote collaboration among practitioners and restorative justice supporters. Keen to promote access to restorative interventions, the Mint House regularly hold cross-sector events.

Belong have participated in a number of Mint House events. For example, a panel disucssion with Belong’s Head of Programmes on the theme “Restorative Justice in Prisons: Where Next?”, which you can watch on YouTube.

In May 2023, Belong’s CEO contributed to a One-Day conference held by Mint House, on ‘Communicating Restorative Justice to people who harm’.

Find more events held by Mint House here.