Community Accountability Programs Information ... - Ministry of Justice

• Who has a stake in this situation?• What is the appropriate process to involve stakeholders in an effort toput things right?When developing the process to be used in your community, consider thefollowing: 3• Address harms, needs, and causes.• Hold victim involvement as central.• Involve all the relevant stakeholders. Ensure preparation and safety forall participants.• Facilitate dialogue among all those who are involved, and provideopportunities for participatory decision making. Treat all parties withrespect.• Encourage offenders to take responsibility.• Strive for offender reintegration into the community.• Ensure adequate resources for reparation and reintegration.• Address systemic pressures toward crime.To gauge where your program fits within restorative approaches, use the“restorative justice yardstick” 4 shown on the following pages.3 This list combines suggestions made by Susan Sharpe in Restorative Justice: A Vision forHealing and Change, p. 19, and by Howard Zehr in The Little Book of Restorative Justice,p. 55.4 Howard Zehr. Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice. Scottdale, PA: HeraldPress, 1990, p. 54.Restorative Justice: Promoting Community-Based Responses to Crime 13