Earlier this month, almost 150 Community Justice professionals, volunteers and charities met up for the inaugural Community Justice East Dunbartonshire Conference.
The event entitled, 'Community Justice through a trauma informed lens' was organised by the Community Justice Partnership on behalf of the East Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership (EDHSCP) and held in Bishopbriggs.
Attendees from dozens of organisations discussed how trauma and adverse childhood experiences affect people and how this can lead to offending and victimisation, which in turn can lead to stigma.
Councillor Susan Murray, Depute Chair of the HSCP board made the closing remarks and thanked everyone involved. She said, "Today was an example of partnership in action with public agencies, charities, academics and local projects coming together to share knowledge, experience and information on an important topic.
"There was discussion around how early intervention in a vulnerable person's life could prevent offending and how recognising the effect of adverse childhood experiences can help to prevent the cycle of re-offending. There was also a focus on the stigma associated with offending and the victimisation within communities often felt by offenders."
Participants watched clips from the Second Chancers campaign featuring people who turned things around after committing an offence. They also caught a performance of 'The Letter Box' by Theatre Nemo, a dramatic monologue from a domestic abuse survivor.
There were four workshops on the following themes:
- What are the relationships between adverse childhood experiences, personality disorder and risk
- "What about me?" - the impact on children when mothers are involved in the criminal justice system
- The impact of trauma on women serving custodial sentences
- How stigma affects people.
The aim of the conference was to inspire and connect people throughout the sector with the understanding that everyone has a part to play in working together to strengthen community justice within East Dunbartonshire.
The full list of conference contributors is as follows:
- East Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership
- East Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnership
- Community Justice Scotland
- Police Scotland
- Amy Ford, Clinical Lead and author of 'Up2U'
- Kevin Neary, Co-founder of Aid and Abet
- Marc Kozlowski, Forensic Psychologist at Edinburgh Napier University
- Families Outside
- Scottish Prison Service
- Scottish Drugs Forum Peer Researchers