Community-led restorative justice program launched in Footscray to divert young people from the criminal justice system
Africause, a community-based, not-for-profit organisation in Victoria has launched its Community Restorative Justice Program in Footscray, a community-led approach to resolving harm that aims to give young people a way out of the criminal justice system and address the disproportionate contact African young people have with it.
The program, co-designed with RMIT’s Centre for Innovative Justice, draws on African traditions of dialogue, mediation and family involvement. It also makes room for the religious values many families bring to the work, including faith-based support for admitting wrongdoing, listening with humility and honouring a commitment to make amends.
Attendees at the launch in Footscray Victoria (photo source Linked in)
The launch comes amid growing concern about the overrepresentation of African-identifying young people in Victoria’s youth justice system. Between 2021 and 2022, 39 per cent of those in youth custody in Victoria were African-identifying young people, despite only 2.6 per cent of the wider youth population aged 10 to 17 identifying as being of African descent. By 2024, African youth accounted for about 50 per cent of young people in custody in Victoria, up from 4 per cent in 2012. The most recent data available from 2017 showed 19 per cent of young people in youth justice custody were of African background.
The human costs of that contact are well documented. Incarceration often leads to a range of negative effects on emotional and psychological wellbeing for families and kin. Children enculturated into a system of incarceration can find it increasingly difficult to reunify with their family and community, and many feel shut out and shunned by society with no clear way back. Youth incarceration disrupts education, severs ties with family and culture, and increases the risk of reoffending. Strong, supported and culturally grounded youth, by contrast, are key to strong communities, and communities are safer and healthier when people who experience the justice system can maintain connection with their families.
Victoria’s legislative framework has shifted in a direction that creates space for programs like Africause’s. In 2024, the Parliament passed the Youth Justice Act, which embedded diversion-first principles and restorative justice processes, alongside a “detention as a last resort” framework. The Act establishes a hierarchy of responses before criminal proceedings, including early diversion group conferences based on restorative justice principles, where a child may meet with the victim or a victim representative to discuss the impact of their offending and develop an outcome plan. The stated purpose is to promote community safety through safe, supportive and solution-focused processes that assist the child to repair harm to themselves, any victims, and their families and community. Timing is considered crucial: the earlier the intervention, the greater the chance of stopping a child from reoffending.
The evidence base for restorative approaches supports that rationale. Restorative justice prioritises accountability and reparation of harm over punishment and retribution, and recognises that relationships are key to rehabilitation and community safety. Practices such as youth and family group conferences have been associated with improved social skills, reduced aggression, and reduced exclusion and reoffending. They can enable children to gain a greater understanding of the impact of their actions on others, foster empathy and accountability, and provide a safe forum that promotes responsibility, reparation and reintegration. Restorative processes also have the potential to empower families and promote healing for victims by acknowledging the harm they have experienced and giving them an opportunity to be heard. Research indicates such processes can reduce victims’ feelings of fear and promote a sense of safety.
There are broader community-level benefits as well. Restorative justice programmes can aid in the restoration of damaged social ties, and people who feel connected are less likely to let down those they care about or are linked to. The restorative process can help restore harmony to the community of impact when participants attain a sense of justice, and has been found to bring families, and even offenders and victims, closer together. Extensive use of family group conferencing as a response to juvenile crime has also been linked to an increase in community skills in problem solving and conflict resolution.
RMIT’s Centre for Innovative Justice, the co-design partner, is an independent research and reform organisation focused on innovative ways to improve the legal system, with a particular focus on therapeutic jurisprudence. Its research has found that restorative justice can meet the needs of victims in ways the adversarial system cannot. The Centre delivers restorative justice processes through its practice arm, Open Circle, which helps bring people together to acknowledge and respond to experiences of harm.
At the centre of the Africause model is the person who experienced the harm. Restorative justice begins by listening to them, and they decide whether and how they wish to take part. For a young person who has caused harm, taking responsibility means understanding how their actions affected someone else and following through on what they agree to do. A family member, elder or trusted faith leader can walk alongside the young person and help them keep that commitment. Any decision about forgiveness belongs to the person harmed.
Africause says the program aims to give young people a way out of the criminal justice system by starting with accountability and an understanding of the harm caused. It also gives people who have been harmed a choice about whether and how they want to be heard, what might help put things right and whether they wish to take part in reconciliation. Families, community members and services can then help young people follow through on their commitments, make lasting changes and prevent further harm.
The program was launched at the Western Bulldogs Football Club in Footscray.
