About - Community Reparation Projects
The Community Justice Centre aims to make sure offenders sentenced to unpaid work as part of a community order, carry out tasks which benefit local people and their neighbourhoods.
Developed with the centre's Probation Service and Youth Offending teams, the programme sees both adult and young offenders carrying out their unpaid work orders in areas identified by the community, where their input will have the most benefit for local people.
The centre is aiming to develop the programme so that offenders carry out their community orders in the area where they committed their crime, to make sure they are not only punished, but so that they understand the impact they have on local people.
Projects include an ongoing programme of work in the grounds of the Community Justice Centre, the development of a children's nature trail at a local neighbourhood centre and an initiative to improve the Leeds Liverpool canal and its surroundings at Vauxhall, to make the area more pleasant for local people.
A clean-up squad of young offenders has been involved in dredging the canal waterway to remove bulky items, such as shopping trolleys and bikes. This has been carried out in conjunction with a wider community reparation initiative being completed in the area by Merseyside Probation Service. This involves adult offenders clearing eyesores in the canalside park area, by removing rubbish, clearing overgrown and neglected land, and painting railings where needed.
The Community Justice Centre is currently working with local people to identify areas within Anfield, County, Everton and Kirkdale, which could benefit from community reparation work. If you know of an area in your neighbourhood that could benefit from this kind of work, please email the Community Resource team.