Report as of 15 May 2012 :
The development of a Tasmania Chapter of RPI was linked to the recent visit to Hobart on 7 May 2012 by RPI Director Katy Hutchison. Katy’s presentation at the inaugural seminar was attended by approximately 60 people that included State politicians, police, teachers, youth workers and members of the public. Several people have nominated to form a steering committee to grow a Tasmanian Chapter.
The committee will soon meet to plan how best to meet the needs of local practitioners and grow the use of Restorative Practices in Tasmania.
Katy’s presentation was powerful and two of the responses received by RPI Director John Lennox were:
A Teacher,
“Thank you so much. May I also take this time to thank you for organising Katy to speak last night. I was incredibly moved by her story and went home full of admiration for her. I made a point of telling Katy’s story to my family and reiterating to my two boys the importance of not being a bystander and always telling someone if they see something happening that they know is wrong, along with the importance of forgiveness! It is an incredibly powerful story and one that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was interesting that I could also relate my own personal stories to Katy’s in many ways despite being so different from the murder of a spouse. “
And from a Police Officer
“I just wanted to thank you and Les for giving me the opportunity of attending Katy’s seminar.
I have been working on the streets doing shift work on the other side of restorative justice for 14 years now, but I have always been interested in working with at risk youth and restorative programs but haven’t been quite ready to stop working on the streets.
I have worked in Early Intervention for 9 months about a year and a half ago and for the last 4 months. In that time I have facilitated formal cautions and attended community conferences which have been inspiring. I have found something that I think with some more experience I can be very good at.
The seminar has made me decide that from this point on, I want to focus my life in that direction. “
