In 2021 Transforming Justice Australia conducted a community engagement and consultation with youth stakeholders, services and specialists in New South Wales. This initiative was funded with the support of Westpac’s Safer Communities, Safer Children funding program. Read more about the grants program here.

This consultation held with the support of NSW Children’s Court informed the development of Transforming Justice Australia’s specialist practice framework developed for the purpose of supporting a specialist pilot project to complement Youth Justice Conferencing in NSW. We hope to implement a pilot in the coming years.  

In collaboration with Youth Action, we developed a youth-focussed survey for young people in NSW. The purpose of the survey was to ask how young people (14-25 yo) want to receive information about restorative justice and what they would want from a restorative justice process.

This online survey was designed to ask young people these questions in a safe and respectful way. The survey was advertised through Youth Action’s YAP newsletter, through youth networks and online.

The results of the survey found that most young people would speak with a friend or family member following a sexual assault and that most feel that restorative justice could help to deal with what happened, the impacts and a way forward.

In collaboration with Open Circle, Project Restore, Community Transitions, Australian National University, University of Wellington and individual restorative practitioners, Transforming Justice has developed a specialist practice network. This network provides a safe and confidential space to share good practice learnings, for peer to peer consultation and for building the evidence based to support good practice in these settings.

Over a period of two weeks in February 2025 Transforming Justice Australia in partnership with the Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivor Support Centre (BRISSC), facilitated knowledge and learning circles for all staff of the newly formed National Student Ombudsman about how to support and respond to people who have been harmed by gender-based and/or sexual violence.

The National Student Ombudsman, which was launched on 1 February 2025 forms part of the Action Plan to address gender-based violence in higher education. The NSO will also be able to take complaints from students about a provider’s handling of other matters, for example where a student is subjected to antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism on campus. 

The NSO will consider whether decisions and actions taken by higher education providers are unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, discriminatory, or otherwise wrong; make recommendations to resolve complaints; share information with relevant regulators for further compliance action; offer a restorative engagement process between a student and the provider; and offer alternative resolution processes to resolve disputes. See more at  nso.gov.au.

During the circles we focused on exploring dialogue with staff of the NSO to understand gender-based and sexual harm and its impacts in the context of higher education. We also explored the application of trauma-informed and survivor-centred practice when supporting people who have experienced gender-based and sexual harm. We are so grateful to the NSO for the opportunity to facilitate these important learning spaces and to BRISSC and their members who co-facilitated the learning circles with us.

The Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence Project is evaluating community-led interventions that impact the identified drivers and reinforcing factors of violence against women and children. The project is building on a Theory of Change by adopting the socio-ecological model to design the implementation and evaluation of select sexual violence prevention interventions across Australia. La Trobe University is currently evaluating our REVIVE program and expect to publish a final evaluation in late 2026.
For more information go to: https://www.anrows.org.au/project/partners-in-prevention-of-sexual-violence-project/

Transforming Justice has been commissioned to provide services and programs in the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network. We are calling this work our Community Practices Project and throughout 2026 will be offering a series of community events and opportunities for the people, services and communities in the region to engage with this program and tell us what their knowledge and needs are for responding to sexual harm.

Anyone in the community can register for our upcoming event starting on 21 May by registering here