"Owning Up" and "Reparation: Paying Back the Community"
For County Durham Youth Engagement Service
through The Forge, Arts in Education Agency for Sunderland
and County Durham
Examples of our productions
CDYES, through their education partner: The Forge, commissioned two films. The first, "Owning Up", is a film about the Youth Engagement Service's restorative justice programme. It tells the stories of several victims of crime who went through the process of communicating with the young person who committed the offence. This communication is done either face-to-face, by letter, through a third-party or a mixture of the above and each victim is closely supported throughout the process and involved at a level they feel comfortable with. This process is designed to allow the young person to acknowledge the harm they had caused by hearing it first hand from the victim, to allow the victim to have some say in the reparation order that the young person receives, and to offer the victim "closure". The purpose of the film was twofold. Firstly to send to project partners, sponsors, funders and supporters to profile the ongoing work of CDYES and the principles of restorative justice generally. Secondly, to succinctly explain to victims (and community panel members) the process of restorative justice, how it works and what other victims of crime got out of it (including the challenges they faced).
This involved working in very sensitive environments, and provides an example of our rigorous "media release procedure". Each victim was closely consulted before filming to ensure that they gave full "informed consent" and were involved in the filming in a way they felt comfortable, before participating in the production.
Debbie Cooper of County Durham Youth Engagement Service says:
"We experienced a company who were approachable, offered excellent value for money, were flexible to meet our ever changing needs, met all timescales, were perfectionists to the end and gave support and assistance to people who were having to discuss difficult and emotional subjects that were personal to them."
The resulting film has been distributed around the country--the National Youth Justice Board requested a viewing--and CDYES report that it has been screened to hundreds of victims of crime and prospective panel members across County Durham.
The second film, "Reparation: Paying Back the Community", profiles the work of the Youth Engagement Service's reparation teams who carry out voluntary work in the local community. The aim of this DVD was to encourage more non-profit organisations to apply for voluntary assistance. The finished DVD was sent to hundreds of non-profit and voluntary organisations, and the reparation team has reported that interest has grown noticeably as a result, and that because of the publicity, 2007 saw high demand and uptake for the team's voluntary work.
For County Durham Youth Engagement Service
through The Forge, Arts in Education Agency for Sunderland
and County Durham
Examples of our productions
CDYES, through their education partner: The Forge, commissioned two films. The first, "Owning Up", is a film about the Youth Engagement Service's restorative justice programme. It tells the stories of several victims of crime who went through the process of communicating with the young person who committed the offence. This communication is done either face-to-face, by letter, through a third-party or a mixture of the above and each victim is closely supported throughout the process and involved at a level they feel comfortable with. This process is designed to allow the young person to acknowledge the harm they had caused by hearing it first hand from the victim, to allow the victim to have some say in the reparation order that the young person receives, and to offer the victim "closure". The purpose of the film was twofold. Firstly to send to project partners, sponsors, funders and supporters to profile the ongoing work of CDYES and the principles of restorative justice generally. Secondly, to succinctly explain to victims (and community panel members) the process of restorative justice, how it works and what other victims of crime got out of it (including the challenges they faced).
This involved working in very sensitive environments, and provides an example of our rigorous "media release procedure". Each victim was closely consulted before filming to ensure that they gave full "informed consent" and were involved in the filming in a way they felt comfortable, before participating in the production.
Debbie Cooper of County Durham Youth Engagement Service says:
"We experienced a company who were approachable, offered excellent value for money, were flexible to meet our ever changing needs, met all timescales, were perfectionists to the end and gave support and assistance to people who were having to discuss difficult and emotional subjects that were personal to them."
The resulting film has been distributed around the country--the National Youth Justice Board requested a viewing--and CDYES report that it has been screened to hundreds of victims of crime and prospective panel members across County Durham.
The second film, "Reparation: Paying Back the Community", profiles the work of the Youth Engagement Service's reparation teams who carry out voluntary work in the local community. The aim of this DVD was to encourage more non-profit organisations to apply for voluntary assistance. The finished DVD was sent to hundreds of non-profit and voluntary organisations, and the reparation team has reported that interest has grown noticeably as a result, and that because of the publicity, 2007 saw high demand and uptake for the team's voluntary work.
