The Victoria Restorative Justice Society facilitates many kinds of restorative justice processes, including community justice conferences, panels, victim-offender mediation and peace-making circles. Cases are referred to us by police, Crown Counsel, the community, other social service agencies, schools and ICBC. All restorative justice processes are facilitated by trained volunteer caseworkers. This volunteer position requires maturity, insight, respect and the ability to be assertive when necessary.
Caseworkers are notified of a case after the referral is made to VRJS and the Program Coordinator approves it for restorative justice. An email is sent out to all the caseworkers asking if they are able to take on one of four roles required for each case: facilitator, co-facilitator, mentor and community member.
The facilitator is the lead of the entire case. This position entails meeting with the victim, the offender, and both their supporters to describe the process and ensure the case is still appropriate to go through restorative justice. At the community justice conference, the facilitator leads the circle by reading a script and dealing with conflicts as they come up. After the conference, the facilitator continues to lead the case until it is closed.
The co-facilitator’s role is to support the facilitator throughout the case, from pre-conferencing to the community justice conference and until the case is closed. This role is responsible for facilitating the agreement portion of the conference as well as getting the correct paperwork signed.
The mentor’s role is to support the offender before, during and after the community justice conference. This role requires an in-person interview with the offender before the conference, as well as keeping in touch with the offender on a regular basis after the conference and supporting him/her in accomplishing each of the agreement terms. During the conference, the mentor is there an advocate for the offender.
Community members serve multiple purposes in a conference. These roles are filled by VRJS caseworkers as well as people from the actual communities where the offense took place.
To be a mentor, co-facilitator or facilitator, we need a recent (no older than six months) criminal record check done by your local police department, and you are required to attend all three days of our training course (no dates set yet for the next training). The cost is $100 for the three days, which can be paid in cash or with a cheque. If you become a volunteer with VRJS and complete your one-year volunteer agreement with us, we will reimburse you $75.
Being a caseworker is very rewarding, but can also be very demanding, of both your emotions and your time. Every case is different, but the average number of hours for each case is 10-15 for the facilitator, 7-10 for the co-facilitator, 10 for the mentor, and 3 for the community members. We require our caseworkers to offer to be on a minimum of six cases per year.
Due to an influx in applications, we are unfortunately only able to interview professionals with experience in RJ or a related field. If you have a background in mediation, psychology, counseling etc and are interested in becoming a caseworker, please download the VRJS Volunteer Application Form and send it to Shanna Grant, the VRJS Volunteer Coordinator & Program Assistant, at office@vrjs.org.
