History: Newcastle as a Restorative City (NRC) and Hunter Restorative Community (HRC)
2016
September 2016 Mary Porter AM approached Dr Nicola Ross, Professor John Anderson, and Professor Tania Sourdin from the University of Newcastle, UoN, Law School to gauge interest in developing Newcastle as a Restorative City, NRC.
2017
Nicola, John and Mary presented a paper on the idea of Newcastle as a Restorative City at the 2nd International Conference on non-Adversarial Justice in Sydney. John and Nicola published an article in Journal of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration. The NED Foundation paid for and Nicola supervised PT assistants until 2021 (law students). Nicola and John attended the 2-day Restorative City of Culture World Conference in Hull, UK.
2018
With the NED Foundation’s support, funding from Ian Potter Foundation and Red Cross, Nicola, John, Mary, Kerrie Thompson (VOCAL) and Tania organised a successful symposium, with international speakers and links to an international learning community. 150 people attended. Conference evaluation showed strong interest in NRC: Decision to establish an NRC Advisory committee. Nicola attended and presented at the 2-day International Restorative Conference, University of Vermont Law School 28-30 June, Burlington Vermont, USA.
2019
Journal issue of the Newcastle Law Review on Symposium published. Work by committee to develop relationships with youth, police, schools, child protection and DV sectors and restorative University of Newcastle projects (for instance, Student Living); events bringing community together around restorative practice; workshops by Paul Nixon, Terry O’Connell, Kerrie Sellen. Network meetings began and were re-established in 2021 monthly.
2020
In June, changes at the UoN led the NRC to move to transition to holding its business in the community. Mary and John worked with Nicola, who was paid a small honorarium for 12 months by the NED Foundation, to explore possibilities for and establish the NCR in the community. Between September and November, Nicola led a team through the I2N Integrated Innovation Network to complete a 10-week on-line validator program (Mary, Richard, Kerrie, Justine Cogan) Emphasis on RP in schools.
2021
Nicola supervised admin assistants at The Base, through its NFP arm. In February, a Strategic Planning Workshop with READ strategy consultant was held to establish the HRC name, vision, mission, values, and organisational identity. In April a meeting of interested persons was held to draft a constitution for the Association. A meeting in June led to the registration of the HRC as an incorporated Association, a Constitution adopted, and office bearers and committee members elected to a board. Initial committee including Dr Nicola Ross (Pres.) Jamie-Lee Costa (V/Chair) Mary Porter AM (V/Chair) Kerrie Thompson (Secretary) Ewa Korczynski (Treasurer) Richard De Martin, Seema Sanghi, Djoeke Van Loon and Sage Scott.
2022
In February 2022 a restorative circle was facilitated by Gemma Edgar, General Manager of the restoratively run Student Services at the University of Newcastle and in April a Strategic planning session was held with futurist Virginia Morris.