Looking After Home

Hope Vale puts community at the centre of Justice Reinvestment

For Peter, the work starts with something simple – Hope Vale is home.

“It’s my hometown. I’ve got a deep connection here,” he says.

That connection sits at the heart of Hope Vale’s approach to Justice Reinvestment, which is bringing community members and local service providers together to look at how problems can be addressed earlier, before people become involved in the criminal justice system.

One example is the monthly Community Connect barbecue. The informal gathering gives service providers a chance to share information, answer questions and speak directly with community members.

Peter says the approach is already improving communication between organisations.

“The biggest thing for me now is that we started to share information between service deliverers, service providers and our service delivery,” he says.

Justice Reinvestment looks at the conditions that can lead people into contact with the justice system and supports communities to develop local responses to those issues.

For Hope Vale resident Esma, prevention is central.

“Prevention before we even get them into the court system,” she says. “If we prevented … I don’t think they’d be ending up in the court system.”

Local leadership is also critical. Peter says programs brought into communities without local input have often struggled because the people they are designed for have had little say in shaping them.

Hope Vale’s approach is instead being driven from the grassroots, with community members helping identify priorities and design solutions.

Work underway includes plans for a locally led mediation group, with accredited community mediators supporting family disputes, alongside a youth resilience program using equine-assisted learning and therapy.

For Esma, the reason for the work is clear.

“My heart is here,” she says.

“This is home. Look after our home.”