<< Objectives >>The implementation of JUSTIN seeks to:- facilitate capacity building in Czech and Slovak mediators by developing training materials and providing training sessions;- upskill RJ practitioners in view of facilitating better mediation in serious crime; this can help the victims’ families start healing and prompt the perpetrators to assume personal accountability;- promote the wider application of mediation in serious crime as a judicial practice.<< Implementation >>JUSTIN plans:1. Kick-off meeting for strategizing project implementation; viewing “Eye to Eye” movie on RJ;2. Study visit to Criminal Sanctions Agency, Finland, for acquiring good RJ practices;3. Development of training materials using the expertise of the partners; 4. Expert training sessions deploying the training materials;5. General dissemination promoting JUSTIN results beyond the project consortium;6. Project management activities for appropriate and timely project implementation.<< Results >>JUSTIN expected results are:- widely available training materials and methodology for European entities interested in mediation in serious crime; - better trained Czech and Slovak RJ practitioners;- increased interest in RJ practitioners to engage in mediation in serious crime; - consolidated inter-institutional and cross-border cooperation for advancing RJ application in CZ and SK; - reduced stigma around mediation in serious crime and increased awareness about its societal benefits.

Over the last years, Europe has seen the development of very different training proposals related to Restorative Justice (RJ) and mediation, some of which tend to train mediators as individual professionals with postgraduate courses, others tend to form groups of mediators linked to specific communities. The MEDIAREJ project aims to take stock of various training methods and implementing them through joint staff training and work on innovative IOs in 4 European countries, establishing a network among trained professionals and organisations. OBJECTIVES- Fostering RJ competencies in different target groups by disseminating the RJ methodology thanks to training courses and multiplier events;- Developing, through the IO and the joint staff training, a standardised competences framework, a course curriculum for training, original methods and new toolkits starting from the RJ methodology, under the supervision of Maritain and the coordination of Nathan, as well as with the specific support provided by the EFRJ;- Providing training for 28 mediators, trainers and professionals under the supervision of the EFRJ (5-day Joint Staff Training event in Croatia) on RJ methodologies, after having involved about 50 other trainers in the piloting of the training modules within the Training Programme; - Raising awareness on RJ for other target groups at a local level through 4 dissemination events in Italy, Spain, Croatia, Romania, as well as 2 final conferences to be organised in Triest and in Brussels;- Empowering staff and strengthening the operational capacity of local RJ centres, creating a permanent expert group of trainers at European level (coordinated by Maritain and EFRJ) and a network among organisations from different partner countries and preparing the ground for opening new centres; - Matching an adequate quality standard to build more expertise of experienced mediators, thus allowing skills recognition, facilitating the mobility at the European level of mediation and RJ experts.EXPECTED RESULTSThe MEDIAREJ project will develop: -1 Framework of Competencies;-1 Training Programme;-1 Toolkit on Community Practices;-1 Collection of sensitive zones related to gender-based violence;-1 set of multimedia and audiovisual materials for trainers;-1 online training platform.TARGET GROUPSThe project targets trainers of mediators and mediators engaged in their territories to work in mediation centres and RJ, as well as university scholars and researchers.NEEDS ANALYSISThis exchange is aimed at drafting agreed guidelines to clarify the essential requirements for the training of mediators and mediation trainers to operate effectively and efficiently. To reach the goal of shared guidelines, the exchange of experiences is essential, through targeted and periodic meetings. It is necessary to become aware that mediation and RJ are primarily practical sciences. There is a lot of diversity in this area, there are those who, for example, propose, as is the case in the University, postgraduate courses to train mediators. TRANSNATIONAL DIMENSIONThis joint work will involve partners from the 4 above-mentioned countries (Italy, Croatia, Romania, Spain), some with a stronger background in RJ and others with younger experience. This transnational work will be supported by the major European network organisation in the RJ field, our partner the EFRJ, based in Belgium but working at pan-European level throughout its network in 40 countries (a membership in which are already included 3 of our project partners).PROJECT PARTNERSHIPThe project leader, the MARITAIN Institute (Italy), is a cultural institute and research centre whose staff members have sound experience in the RJ field. Our second Italian partner, NATHAN, in an association strongly committed to specialised training in mediation and promotion of the RJ humanistic approach. The consortium also includes one organisation based in Spain, AMBIT, and one from Romania, Fundatia Professional, equally committed to fostering social inclusion and working with inmates. Lastly, the partnership is completed by one organisation from Croatia, ACSW, and by the major European network in the RJ field, the European Forum for Restorative Justice.

"The EU Directive 2012/29 of the European Parliament reaffirms the principle that ""a crime is not only a wrong to society, but also a violation of the individual rights of victims"". Restorative justice starts from the assumption that the crime generates a conflict that causes the breaking of symbolically shared social expectations. The crime becomes an offense that does not only affect those who committed it and those who sanction it with the sentence, but who has suffered the wrong and the laceration: the victim and society. With both, the fractures must be repaired, not so much with monetary compensations, but with positive actions. Fundamentals of restorative justice are: the responsibility of the offender to whom a proactive attitude is required, the recognition of the victim whose suffering must be repaired, the involvement of the community in the process of reparation of the damage. This approach, used extensively in European countries for the re-education of minors, took off differently in adult re-education. In Belgium, for example, the law on Restorative Justice dates back to 2005, Ireland is successfully experimenting restorative practices with the restorative communities. In Italy, restorative justice has been recently introduced (law 67/2014) with probation measures through works of public utility. According a research carried out in years 2015-2017 by the Criminal Execution Office of Pisa (belonging to the Italian Ministry of Justice), restorative measures towards the offended communities are growing in Italy. This is leading to the strengthening of local networks made up of cooperatives, associations, NGOs, local communities and Public Institutions supporting offenders in their path toward the restoration in favour of the community. However, it is now crucial to move from the sole voluntary service to the community - still appreciable – towards a more professional restorative approach, involving effective practices and reliable methodologies relative to the offenders, the victims and the community. Thus, KINTSUGI general objective seeks at fostering social inclusion of people subjected to alternative measures to detention for crimes of through the implementation of restorative practices paths. In doing this, the project intends to improve the skills and competences of the trainers/operators of the organizations cooperating in ""probation measures through works of public utility"" and in other measures alternative to detention. The aim is to facilitate the implementation of restorative justice paths, spreading the meaning of reparation and promoting the assumption of responsible attitudes towards victims, society and community rules. To achieve this objective, KINTSUGI brings together a specific partnership made up of adult education and restorative justice organizations coming from Italy, Belgium and Northern Ireland, and counting with the associate participation of the Italian Ministry of Justice. The working methodology schedules two project phases one for preparation of and one for implementation. Thus, firstly, project partners will have the opportunity to share European restorative justice practices, to capitalize working methods and to develop a joint training program for staff. Then, 25 participants will be selected among social workers, trainers and offender’s tutors, mediators specialized in the victim-offender relationship and/or in family mediation and community conflicts, and they will participate in the 90-hours joint training program taking place through weekly sessions in Northern Ireland, Italy and Belgium. Throughout the whole KINTSUGI life cycle, partners will be able to systematize links and build relationships, in order to create a real European network of actors working in the field of restorative justice. Thanks to the project, the awareness raising on restorative justice practices will spread both at national and European level, as well. The restorative practices will be enriched by new shared approaches, by the co-production of tools, agreements and methodologies. Thus, the Communities will become ""reparative"", no longer just useful to collaborate to offer opportunities to probationary people but with the new awareness of the function of being an instrument of mediation, acceptance, change and inclusion."

"The EU Directive 2012/29 states this principle ""a crime is not only a wrong to society, but also a violation of the individual rights of victims"". Restorative justice starts from the assumption that the crime generates a conflict that causes the breaking of symbolically shared social expectations. The crime becomes an offense that does not only affect those who committed it and those who sanction it with the sentence, but who has suffered the wrong and the laceration: the victim and society. The implementation of restorative justice (when possible) has several benefits in term of reduction of crime recurrence, reduction of post-traumatic stress symptoms and drop of the victim's desire for revenge against the offender. However, according a recent Report commissioned by the European Commission on the implementation status of the Directive EU, restorative justice doesn’t represent yet a founding concept of the justice system since different Member States do not have same approach in its introduction into their own legal systems. Thus, the Report asks to increase cooperation among justice practitioners (bottom-up approach) not only to better share tools, methodologies, good practices, etc. but also to joint search for effective solutions to common problems in Europe (e.g. secondary victimization of the victim).The general objective of PROTECT is to promote the victims’ rights protection (i.e. fostering victims’ social inclusion) through the implementation of restorative practices paths. In doing this, the project intends to improve the skills and competences of the trainers/operators of partners’ organizations working in the field of the restorative justice and of the support to the victims of crime. The objective will be pursued through the creation of a ""peer-learning community"", among some of the EU countries having effectively implemented the Directive, where partners can actively exchange knowledge, develop common training methodologies, foster professional competences and discuss problematic issues.To achieve this objective, PROTECT brings together a very specific partnership made up of adult education organisations coming from Italy, Belgium Spain, Portugal and Germany. Each of the partner organisation will bring to the project its professional expertise, in the field of restorative justice and/or of support to the victims of crime, and it will contribute to the capitalisation of complementary past project experiences (i.e. Erasmus+ project “KINTSUGI” and Justice projects “VictorIIa”, “SupportVoc” and “LetsGoByTalking”) from which is possible to transfer good practices and tools. The working methodology schedules two project phases one for preparation of and one for implementation. Firstly, project partners will set up the peer-learning community by sharing know-how, capitalising tools and practices coming of the projects involved, by jointly organising the capacity building program and the selection system for the personnel who will participate. Then, the 60 hours training programme will be implemented through 3 Short-term joint staff training events to be organised according to the peer-learning principle and non-formal education approach. Participants will be selected among partners’ staff having the following professional profiles: mediators, trainers, lawyers, psychologists, social workers and also external experts, teachers, researches, supervisors working in the partners’ organisations in direct cooperation with the Associated Partners organisations (City of Viterbo Council, Viterbo County and Arnera Social Enterprise from Pisa).Main results achieved by PROTECT will consist of the very creation of a permanent peer-learning community among European experts working in the field of the restorative justice and the protection of victims’ rights; the professional empowerment of staff belonging o the partners’ organisations through the joint training activities; the elaboration of training tools supporting the definition of a European model for training of sector’s operators (as indicated by Directive 2012/29/EU). Thanks to the project, participants will acquire a more specific vision of the potential of the restorative justice paradigm and they will trigger a multiplier effect of project results through their daily work in other contexts in which they use to operate (e.g. penitentiaries, support services for victims, etc.). Finally, PROTECT will set up the right framework for the permanent exchange of European practices between two systems - the restorative justice one and the victims protection one - often operating in parallel when have to manage disputes’ resolution but without any effective operational cooperation between its actors."