Referrals to project restore

We receive referrals from the court once a guilty plea to a sexual violence charge has been made and prior to sentencing. If you are the person harmed, the Officer in Charge of the case (may ask you) or the Specialist Victim Adviser if you wish to participate or hear from Project Restore. You can inform them at any time if you do not wish to be contacted.

We can also receive referrals from the court before a guilty plea has been entered where the Judge requests a diversion to see if an alternative justice process can be held. Both the Crown and Prosecution and the parties have to agree to the referral. We call these Court Diversion cases.

We regularly receive referrals from people in the community, which are outside of the formal justice system. These include self-referrals, and referrals from a third party who might be supporting someone involved in an incident of harmful sexual behaviour or sexual violence.

Referrals to Project Restore can come from;

• Anyone harmed by sexual violence.
• Anyone who has caused harm through their sexual behaviour.
• Therapists working with either the person harmed or the person causing harm.
• Agencies responding to sexual violence or other social service agencies.

We may be able to provide an alternative restorative process where a person or persons have been harmed or has experienced sexual harassment within the context of an organisation and seeks to hold that organisation to account for not protecting them e.g. churches, schools, or workplaces.

Sometimes the person harmed (or the person who has caused the harm) will refer themselves to Project Restore. This is a courageous step for anyone involved in harmful sexual behaviour and we will work closely to assist your healing and ability to move forward.

Whether an incident of harm/sexual violence happened yesterday or a whole lifetime ago, Project Restore can help you. It’s never too late to heal from the hurt.

We can also receive referrals post sentence – pre or post release, we call these post sentence referrals. In some instances, the offender may still be in custody or under the care of the Department of Corrections.

Usually one party initiates the referral, if the other party is willing to engage with us, we can proceed.

We also receive referrals from the police where a decision not to proceed to laying of charges has been made but where parties may be willing to engage in an alternative justice process – a pre charge referral.

In most situations, Project Restore can access funding for the process. If we are not able to do so, we will discuss this with you.

The time when the person had caused harm is due to be released from prison is a time that often brings up concerns for victims and survivors. We have funding from Corrections to provide restorative justice for these situations (either pre-release or pre-parole or post-release).