On 14 July 2017 Community Justice Ayrshire was delighted to host a visit from Linda Pollock, Deputy Director, Justice Division, Scottish Government. Linda’s visit gave us the opportunity to showcase our approach to community justice in Ayrshire through the aspirations in our plan ‘Beginnings, Belonging, Belief’. Linda was able to find out first-hand about just some of the innovative services and projects that are being delivered across Ayrshire, and how our unique cross-authority partnership is working in practice.
We were grateful that so many of our colleagues from partner agencies agreed to take part in the event, and we were especially glad to welcome some people who have used some of the services being showcased, who were able to add real depth to some of the discussions about what worked well, and where improvements could be made.
The event took place within Heart and Soul, which is a project for women and girls based in Cumnock. We were delighted at how well the team from Heart and Soul accommodated the event, especially as they were holding their own grand opening the following day.
Community Justice in Action was a collaboration between just some of the many partner agencies working across the breadth of community justice in Ayrshire, and included:*
Heart and Soul
Catalyst
Alcohol & Drug Partnership Recovery Initiatives
Fetal Alcohol Disorder Pilot
Criminal Justice Social Work – Statutory Services
Service User Involvement Initiative
Turning Point Scotland / HMP Kilmarnock Prisoner Support Pathways
East Ayrshire Council Position Statement on Prostitution
Police Mental Health & Distress Triage Pilot
We also took the opportunity to invite members of the Community Justice Ayrshire Board on the day, some of whom were taking up their positions on the Board for the first time. This event helped to serve as an induction of sorts, giving new Board members some background into the breadth of work being done across Community Justice Ayrshire, and bringing this to life through conversations with both service providers and service users.
We were also pleased to welcome colleagues from Community Justice Scotland to the event, who said that they had found the experience very informative.
After the event, we were delighted to receive a note from Linda, where she expressed her gratitude to all involved in the event, and went on to say that she was “inspired by everyone’s commitment and passion.”
We are grateful to all of the above partners who helped to make the event such a success, and look forward to continuing with our joint work in the future.
*A synopsis of all of the services / initiatives being showcased on the day is available here.