Contents of this blog & an Introduction on film to Sussex People's Justice

Now this blog has grown much longer than intended to update you on the areas of Paul Crosland's work, the following (selective) contents have been added:

Please give the gift of an education for less than £1 per day
Restorative Technology Ltd's funding from NESTA
1,000 Benefactors in Hastings - and a decent "support & accountability system"
Clarifying my September 2011-2012 plans
The Peoples Justice Website; not just for people from Sussex!
A tour of the Peoples Justice site launched 5th November 2010
Have you voted for your £500k to be spent on incarcerating two arsonists yet?
...
Potted Biography for Paul Crosland

Introduction on film to Sussex People's Justice:

Please give the gift of an education for less than £1 per day:

www.nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com

I've just returned in 2011 from filming students at the Nagaloka Institute, Nagpur, India. The Men students share their visions here:
Ajit
Arya (in English)
Bishnu
Bhagwan (in English)
Bhijay (in English and in Hindi)
Hemlal
Kamal
Nikass (in English and in Chakma, with translation text provided)
Raj Shakya
Sujeet (with a translator speaking the English after the Hindi)
Women Students:
Prema
Pratigya
Prayenka
Seema
Soni
Sonya
http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com/p/funding.html
100% of your money donated through Mediation Support Ltd goes directly to the Nagaloka Institute:

If you want to support one or more students complete their year at the Nagaloka Institute (which costs £28 per student per month), you can pay into The Mediation Support Ltd bank account- Ask your bank to transfer into the Mediation Support Ltd account (details on request) or post a cheque payable to Mediation Support Ltd to:
Paul Crosland (Nagaloka fund c/o Mediation Support Ltd)
Southwater Area Community Centre,
1-2 Stainsby St,
St Leonards on Sea
E. Sussex
TN37 0SY
Funding request from Nagamitra for £28 for a student's monthly support

Restorative Technology Ltd's funding from NESTA

The National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts are funding a pilot project being provided by Restorative Technology Ltd

"The Restorative Technology Ltd wider vision is both to enable increased understanding between those involved in and affected by crimes and also to encourage responsibility being taken by all who can contribute to generating safer societies."                (Director and CEO -Paul Crosland)

The Restorative Technology Ltd (draft) business plan is here, and you can offer to support the development of this work by emailing Paul Crosland via the Mediation Support Ltd email contact form here.
If you are from a Youth Offending Team with a demonstrable record of high quality victim contact work (and/or a high victim participation rate), Restorative Technology Ltd may be able to offer in 2011 low-cost-to-user sessions in which the SafeGround software can be used for Restorative Justice staff to role play cases, communicating via video-messaging and text messaging.
For more about NESTA's Reboot Britain work; of which Restorative Technology Ltd's SafeGround project is one of the 12 innovations in delivery of public services, see here.

1,000 Benefactors in Hastings - and a decent "support & accountability system"

When I start to work in 2011 to raise standing order commitments in Hastings, it is important to me that my work is accountable to the supporters of the following organisations:
1) Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust
2) Freelending Community Interest Company
I propose an annual meeting at which I am held to account for my actions in Hastings in relation to the above organisations; held accountable by the 1,000 supporters of those two organisations whom I intend to sign-up.
Any other ideas welcome as to how, as an 'in-comer' I get the balance of accountability & support right for my work in Hastings?

Clarifying my September 2011-2012 plans

For the year from September 2011, I plan to give my time, prioritised as follows:

1. Developing the Peoples Justice Service and Mediation Support Ltd
2. Developing the Criminal Justice System's equivalent of the People's Justice Service with partner Youth Offending Teams (For this work, payment is from Restorative Technology Ltd)
3. Promoting www.streetbank.com in Hastings & St Leonards (supported by Freelending CIC, of which I am a co-director) 
4. Returning to active work as a Trustee of the RJC (after my sabbatical year)

The Peoples Justice Website; not just for people from Sussex!

The first three cases (in three days) on http://peoplesjustice.org.uk are as follows:

1. Hastings Pier Fire -a Hastings resident starting private communication with the "arsonists" (and selectively allowing some of it onto YouTube)
2. London (Haringey) 'ambushing by 4 youths'
3. London (Barnet), theft of cycle accessories

I hope that the planned Autumn 2011 BBC documentary about Hastings Pier will clarify what actually happened; helping the community move on from the rumour-mongering. To get questions answered and issues worked through is the contribution that the Peoples Justice Service is here for. Not just for the pier burning; visit the site to explore how to gain more control in the wake of a crime on http://peoplesjustice.org.uk

A tour of the Peoples Justice site launched 5th November 2010

Ironic that I was also a crime 'victim' on 5th November 2010, the website launch date. I am pursuing justice with the individuals (who I don't know) through the People's Justice Website and posting a notice at the site of the crime in East Finchley to incentivise their participation.

Have you voted for your £500k to be spent on incarcerating two arsonists yet?

-or did you vote for the money to go to Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust (HPWRT)?



Vote on the www.sussexcommunity.blogspot.com (the poll is on the left, just press 'Page Down' on your keyboard once)

Hastings Pier being burned down; so?

OK, so there is a bigger issue in the world than Hastings Pier having burned down:

I was asked "Why the particular interest in Hastings Pier being burned down"?
Well, I'm moved by it, friends and family live there, the community is so affected, 'arsonists' have been caught, and I want to run a particular web-based system of video messaging there, leading to restorative processes and eg a community that is an exemplar of working with disaffected youth. I guess that's the short version of why.

SafeGround Management -innovation in Victim-Offender Mediation

SafeGround is a "Reboot Britain" project funded by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

SafeGround provides a platform to support a facilitated mediation process between victim and offender, and was the winning project at the 2010 Social Innovation Camp (www.jailbrake.org). The judges who awarded the SafeGround team top prize were from the Youth Justice Board, the Prison Reform Trust, the Police Improvement Agency and the Foyer Housing Foundation.

NESTA, funding our work through "Restorative Technology Ltd", has also produced the 'Radical Efficiency' report  in which they acknowledge the work of a friend in Brazil who is innovating, clarifying and offering  Restorative Justice to great effect:

'A great example of a new entrant to an issue bringing passion, naive intelligence and insights from elsewhere is Dominic Barter, who founded restorative circles,"

(I have paraphrased p11 of the report here; see p42-43 for much more about RJ in Brazil)

To see any of the Interviews 1-6 with Dominic about his Restorative Justice work, about Radical Efficiency and SafeGround, please go to my YouTube Channel:
Toothpaste007

SafeGround1 and SafeGround2
On April 2nd 2010, following a meeting between Aleksi Knuutila and  Paul Crosland, Aleksi published to the SafeGround group that "Paul will pursue building up a Safe Ground that would work outside of the youth justice system, sharing the same technology behind it, and would appreciate any help with that. This will be called SafeGround2 for now."
Update: SafeGround2 (as it was called) will be launched by November 5th 2010 at the website www.peoplesjustice.org.uk 

Piloting SafeGround1 in Devon is progressing, and the first report back to NESTA (primary funders for Restorative Technology Ltd's work) in due in the last week of November 2010.