What they wanted

The Le Chéile Restorative Justice Project is Ireland’s first and only non-statutory youth restorative justice service. The Project’s primary focus is on providing a range of restorative justice interventions to young people from the Limerick area, who have been involved in crime and are being worked with by the Probation service. Le Chéile wanted an external evaluation of how effective their restorative justice programme was, and a Social Return on Investment analysis.

What we did

We worked with Le Chéile staff, clients, victims, family members and other professionals to develop a clear understanding of the outcomes of the project. We worked with many interagency partners, like Young Persons Probation, An Garda Síochána, Support After Crimes Services and other community agencies to develop a greater understanding what worked well, what could be improved and what happened as a result of the interventions received For the Social Return on Investment analysis, interviews and focus groups were held with a range of stakeholders including children and young people, members of their families, the victims, representatives of criminal justice agencies and other professionals.

Download the Full Report 
Download the Executive Summary

What they said

The report is another significant milestone on the pathway to a wider, more integrated and informed implementation of Restorative Justice within the criminal justice context.[…] this evaluation is, in itself, a key resource to take the project, as well as other similar initiatives, forward.

Vivian Geiran, Director, The Probation Service