Research and Policy
The CIJ and Open Circle are thought leaders and respected advocates for the use of restorative justice as an alternative to the traditional legal responses to harm. Our research and policy development work has been widely cited by governments and law reform experts, particularly in advocating for restorative responses to harms caused by organisations and institutions, as well as an alternative for victims of sexual violence.
Link to ALRC submission
Program Design
Open Circle designs restorative engagement frameworks for organisations and institutions that want to acknowledge past harm, offer healing and support to people who have been affected, and seek systemic cultural and organisational change to prevent future harm.
We are experts in the design and implementation of restorative engagement programs that bring together a person harmed with a representative of the organisation where the harm occurred and have designed responses for a variety of different institutions and workplace contexts.
Central to our design work is close engagement with an organisation’s leadership and design practices that centre on the needs of people affected to ensure the program is suited to its context. To support this, our program design draws on human-centred approaches, as well as co-design, and includes the development of tailored leadership training and reflective practice.
A critical aspect of our restorative program design is ensuring buy-in from an organisation’s leaders at the initiation phase, and then working with the organisation to develop and deliver tailored training to the organisation on the restorative program. This provides a strong foundation to ensure the senior leaders understand their important role in the restorative process, are properly prepared to participate in the process and accept responsibility on behalf of the organisation. This will, in turn, greatly enhance the power of the restorative processes to inform and drive cultural change across an organisation.
We work with governments, courts and tribunals, not-for-profit entities, community organisations, including Aboriginal-led and community-controlled organisations, and private corporations. Our work includes program design, implementation, facilitation, evaluation and policy work to support organisational change.
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Email: open.circle@rmit.edu.au
Phone: 03 9925 7708