The reaction and response to the restorative city conference held in Wanganui earlier this month has thrilled the organisers, but they said the hard work begins now.
The conference, called Whanganui: Toward a Restorative City, was promoted by the Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust and chairwoman Jenny Saywood said plans to set up a consultative group to work with the trust were progressing.
But Ms Saywood said the getting restorative practices introduced in some workplaces may depend on major policy or operational decisions being made. "The consultative group will need to include people who have that ability to make these decisions. This involves discussions with regional managers in some cases and will take some time. However, at the same time as these discussions are taking place, we're working on local initiatives to encourage and train organisations to start the restorative conversations within their workplace."
Restorative practices is a concept that has been adopted in a handful of cities in the UK and the USA and Wanganui has joined with them.
Ms Saywood said while principles of restorative justice had evolved from a court focus to work in schools, the idea now was to take the practice into the broader community. And she said Wanganui had an opportunity to broaden the scope of the restorative programme so people directly involved could resolve issues among themselves.