Restorative City Whanganui Trust has been operating in our community in various forms since 1999. Restorative City’s origins stem from a meeting in 1997 between Judge Andrew Becroft and a number of key people in the community. They met to discuss how the community could better support young offenders. As a result, a restorative justice approach was developed. The programme initially targeted offenders between 17 and 25 years of age who had been charged with low level crimes. Back then our funding came from the community, rather than government agencies. That marked the beginning of the Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust.

Over time, the age range and variety of crimes eligible for restorative justice have expanded and since 2014 it’s been a legal requirement to consider whether a case should be referred to restorative justice.

In 2012 the Trust began exploring the idea of applying restorative principles and approaches in all aspects of how we engage as a community. The Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust was created to promote this work and sat alongside the Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust.

We looked to Hull and Leeds in the UK which had successfully applied restorative approaches in schools, community groups, workplaces and in homes and adapted those ideas to meet the needs of our Whanganui community.

In 2017 the Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust and Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust merged to become the Restorative City Whanganui Trust. This was to reflect our belief that restorative approaches should be embedded into every relationship and interaction to create a positive, thriving community