The Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development
Successful symposium on the construction of restorative cities
Last week, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. The symposium "Restorative Cities: The Road to a More Inclusive and Fairer Society" was successfully held in the Istrian Parliament in Poreč as an activity carried out within the Erasmus + project Mediarej.
Mediation and restorative practices have proven their positive long-term effect on individuals and communities in several countries where they have been introduced as a way to meet the needs of victims of crime and as preventive work with children and youth with behavioural problems. Over the last ten years, the skills of professionals built through this work have increasingly spilt over the borders of the judiciary and become an innovative tool to increase the participation of all, especially marginalized members of the community and to increase accountability to it. It is precisely these practices and their application that the Mediarej project seeks to strengthen and bring closer to the general public through its activities.
The symposium was divided into two different blocks of activities.
In the first part of the symposium, the lecturers presented to the participants the theoretical basis of the practice of mediation, restorative justice and the construction of restorative cities, supported by concrete examples of good practice. After the introductory part in which the facilitator, mediator and educator Branko Peurača briefly presented the Mediarej project, Dr Ivo Aertsen, professor emeritus of criminology from the Institute of Criminology of the Catholic University of Leuven presented the concept of restorative justice, followed by public policy expert and evaluator Cristina Vasilescu presented the application of the same in the construction of restorative cities and communities. Finally, Sara Dall'Armellina , co-founder of Associazione La Voce per la medizione dei conflitti , presented the activities and projects of her organization.
The second part of the symposium was practical and the participants participated in workshops led by Dr Ivo Aertsen, Dr Belinda Hopkins, Cristina Vasilescu, Sara Dall'Armellina and Lisa Anastasio. The workshops enabled participants to experience and understand how to apply the restorative model and mediation practices in education and care institutions and in local government and public services, which questioned the possibilities of cooperation in capacity building in the fields of education, social welfare and urban security in the local context. Croatian.
Lecturer presentations are available for download.
The symposium was organized within the Erasmus + project Mediarej, led by Instituto Jacques Maritain, and project partners are APS Nathan, Fundatia Professional, Asociacion Ambit, European Forum for Restorative Justice, Association for Creative Social Work and associate partner of the Istria Foundation - Fondazione Istria.
