Janice Bunting, who was previously Deputy CEO, has over 30 years’ experience working in the private, public, community and voluntary sector.
Janice Bunting
She is passionate about the rights of victims and witnesses of crime and hopes to continue and build upon the work of previous CEO Geraldine Hanna to help place Northern Ireland at the forefront of victims’ rights.
During her time as Deputy CEO, Janice was instrumental in expanding dedicated services to children and young people within Victim Support NI. These included the ground-breaking Child Independent Sexual Violence service (CHISVA) and Phoenix Youth (formerly ART).
Janice also has experience in lobbying government to make positive changes for victims and was involved in the Gillen review of sexual violence and the Hate Crime Review, led by His Honour Judge Marrinan.
In other news, The Hate Crime Advocacy Service (HCAS) is proud to be entering the seventh month of its new tendered contract with the PSNI and the Department of Justice.
You will be able to join them in celebrating the impact of the service and the support it provides to victims of hate crime at the service’s virtual ‘No Place for Hate in NI’ event via Zoom on October 13th.
The panel discussion will feature representatives from the HCAS partners, the Department of Justice and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The Hate Crime Advocacy Service supports victims of hate and signal crimes, even if the incident has not been reported to police. The service is delivered by Victim Support NI and partner agencies Leonard Cheshire, The Rainbow Project and the Migrant Centre NI.
In the last two years, Victim Support NI have taken steps to establish a truly victim-led restorative justice service, and became the first provider in Northern Ireland to be awarded Restorative Organisation Status by the Restorative Justice Council.
We have been facilitating restorative conversations, including journeying with victims to facilitate a full conference with the person causing the harm, communicating by letter and other restorative options.
We are currently working on protocols with the Northern Ireland Prison Service and Probation Service, so that when a victim wishes to talk with the offender we are all clear how this contact is made and managed safely.
We have also written and delivered our own restorative justice training courses accredited by the Restorative Justice Council in the UK. These include a Serious and Complex Case training course and full restorative justice facilitator training.
More news on: https://www.victimsupportni.com/
