About the Practitioner
Nova has a deep and abiding interest in Restorative Practice because of the benefits it is able to bring to the resolution of conflict and the principles by which each person in the process is treated with respect and dignity. Importantly, it helps people understand individual points of difference, how a situation has impacted them and works towards a way forward that recognises the harm and what actions need to be taken so everyone can move forward.
Nova first became exposed to Restorative Justice while a student at ANU. Dr Stephen Mugford, from the sociology department, invited speakers from the Australian Institute of Criminology, to introduce the concept of RJ to students.
Nova instinctively knew that allowing victims, perpetrators and their communities of care, to speak with each other was a much better way of moving forward than the traditional court process, where victims were nothing more than 'evidentiary cannon fodder'.
Keen to learn more about the process, Nova undertook training with three of the recognised leaders in the RJ facilitation process, Terry O'Connell, David Moore and John McDonald and commenced working on a large scale randomised controlled trial on restorative justice (called RISE) while also doing a qualitative PhD at ANU on restorative justice that included Professor John Braithwaite on her Supervisory team.
From researching, facilitating and advising on restorative justice and restorative practice, Nova continues to be a passionate advocate for growing restorative practice.
Nova has worked in the area for almost 30 years and has a PhD in Restorative Justice from the ANU.
She began working and studying in the field as part of the ACT Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) Project. She then worked in the UK, again with Professor Laurence Sherman and Dr Heather Strang and Sir Charles Pollard, for the Justice Research Consortium on another randomised controlled trial of restorative justice conferencing. During her study, she contributed to the evaluation of RJ conferencing on a broad range of offences and compared the experience and outcomes to those achieved by the traditional court system.
On returning to Canberra in 2005, Nova assisted in establishing the ACT RJ unit which is informed by the Crimes (Restorative Justice) Act 2004. Nova's role included developing the policies, procedures, data base, participant feedback process, stakeholder education and training and facilitating cases involving serious crime.
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As a member of the RP network in the ACT, Nova is committed to Canberra becoming a restorative city and robustly embraces what restorative practice can do to inform a broad range of areas across justice, health, education and community services.
Nova is also working to identify and grow the use of RP practices within the ACT Public Service, and the broader Canberra community, and sees the increased use of the process as a well being measure for the ACT community.
Organisation
- Restorative Practice Advocate
- Community based
- DPP
- Local police
- Magistrates Court
- Public prison system
- Referrals from the justice system
- Victims of crimes
- Advocacy
- ATSI health and well being
- Child and Family support services
- Criminal Justice
- Culture change
- Facilitation
- Policy development
- Program development
- Research
- Restorative Conferencing
- Restorative Practice meetings
- Team Building
- Training
- Youth justice