As part of becoming a Restorative City, the Restorative Collective Vancouver came to an inspiring consensus to also build restorative neighbourhoods, another first in Canada!
Peace of the Circle received a grant from Civil Forfeiture, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General BC, to begin a project (2023-2024). The Collective chose Hastings Sunrise as our first neighbourhood.
Three lead agencies – Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Hastings Sunrise Community Policing Centre, and Peace of the Circle – created a memorandum of understanding for implementation.
A cohort of local peacemakers will be identified and trained in the coming months.
We are also celebrating the approval of a grant this week from the City of Vancouver that will go to Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House. Thanking City Staff and Mayor & Council for their investment in this exciting initiative as part of becoming a Restorative City.
We applaud our colleague Dr. Theo Gavrielides for his vision of building the first restorative post-code in London, England. Looking forward to further exchanges and collaboration with the Restorative Justice for All (RJ4All) International Institute.
This are more emerging resources. For example, a free recording of an informative webinar, “Building Restorative Communities”, by the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, is available. Featuring guests Holly Northam (Canberra, Australia), Ivo Aertsen (Belgium), Estelle MacDonald (Hull UK), Saleem Tariq (Leeds UK) and host Jennifer Llewelyn (Nova Scotia, Canada).