Restorative Justice: Exploring a model for Highland

Welcome to Restorative Justice: Exploring a model for Highland! Join us at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) for a unique opportunity to explore how Restorative Justice can benefit our justice processes and our communities. The GEESE Theatre Company will support this exploration after some talks and discussion. This will be an engaging event where you can deepen your understanding, share experiences and participate in developments in Highland. This in-person event is designed for professionals working with people in Highlands & Islands who are touched in any way by the justice system.

*Please fill out our brief questionnaire so we can tailor the event to who is in the room: Restorative Justice Pre-Event Questionnaire

More information about the line-up:

Geese Theatre Company is an internationally renowned team of applied theatre practitioners and group workers, working primarily within the UK Criminal Justice System. The company presents interactive theatre performances and facilitates workshops, training for professionals and consultation for criminal justice organisations and related agencies. These include the probation, prisons, special hospitals, young offender institutions and youth offending services. The company also works in community settings with people who are in recovery from addiction and substance misuse, people with ill-mental health and those who experienced homelessness.

Geese is widely acknowledged as being one of the key organisations championing the role of the arts in the Criminal Justice System and has been the subject of two nationally broadcast documentaries, received a BAFTA Interactive Award, a Barclays New Stages Award, a Butler Trust Certificate, and the Royal Society for Public Health’s “Arts and Health Award” for innovation in working with mental health issues. Whilst the company is UK based, their practice is international, with recent projects being delivered in Germany, South Africa and Australia.

Gael Cochrane works at Community Justice Scotland as a Learning, development and innovation Lead where she provides core training to Justice Social Workers and the wider Justice workforce. Gael Chairs the National Trainer’s Group for the Stable and Acute Risk Assessment Tools. Gael has been involved in the development and delivery of restorative justice training for the past 6 years to Justice Social Workers, Police Officers, Prison Officers and youth workers. Gael delivers Restorative Justice training on Serious Harm, RJ and Hate Crime as well as Trauma Informed RJ.

Gael is the chair of the Scottish Restorative Justice Practitioners Network and is a member of the Scottish Restorative Justice Forum, the Scottish Restorative Justice Research Network and the European Forum of Restorative Justice’s Trainers group and Working Group on Gender Based Violence. Gael supports the Edinburgh Hate Crime and Restorative Justice Project, as well as working as a volunteer RJ facilitator.

Gael has been developing educational programmes and delivering training to a wide variety of participants for the past 24 years. She started off working in Advocacy and then moved in to working in the field of Risk Taking Behaviours, primarily working with young people, youth workers, families and other professionals working with young people. It was when working with young people that Gael developed an interest in trauma informed practice and then when managing a Prison Visitors Centre this interest deepened.

Clair Aldington holds a PhD in Design and Restorative Justice and a MA in Contemporary Art and Music. She is a freelance researcher and practitioner and has over twenty years’ experience of working in the field of restorative justice and the arts. Clair has authored several academic articles and book chapters regarding her practice and research and regularly speaks at national and international seminars and conferences. She is the co-founder and Director-Practitioner of the award winning Space2face restorative justice and arts charity in Shetland, Scotland. Space2face is currently undergoing a period of development and is expanding into mainland Scotland and Orkney. Clair is also a co-facilitator of an international restorative circle group, the Encounter of the Encounters, in cases of political violence. Between 2023 - 2025, she was a member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice’s working group on hate, polarisation and violent extremism. Clair’s restorative justice career began in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, England, working with young people who had committed offences and the people they had harmed.

Clair's work has pioneered the use of art and design approaches within restorative justice. Specifically, how creative approaches can aid dialogue and the articulation of trauma, particularly in cases of serious crime, thereby improving the accessibility of restorative processes. Clair’s research and practice argues for the use of an alternative visual and movement based language within restorative processes. She suggests that this, in turn, can promote participants’ oral language use and enhance the connections formed between them. Thus, aiding in the telling of stories central to dialogues in restorative justice encounters.

And more to follow...