Shared Experience In Justice Reform
Client: Oasis Secure School, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) | 2022-23 | Social Care, Justice, Neurodiversity, Mentorship, Youth
Project Summary
PARTNER
Oasis Secure School & Ministry Of Justice (MOJ)
THE CHALLENGE
Oasis Restore will utilise the principles of Restorative Justice, which focuses on addressing the needs of both victims and offenders through meetings and dialogue, instead of a traditional retributive approach. However, the school faces the challenge of gaining students’ trust who may arrive with a negative attitude towards authority.
Many of these children may be high-functioning or adept at masking their neurodivergent condition, making it difficult for authorities to distinguish between poor character and neurological conditions when making arrests.
INDUSTRY
Justice System: Social Care
TOP 3 INSIGHTS
1. First and foremost, children need positive relationships with adults who can model appropriate behaviour, provide guidance and support during dicult times, and actively listen to their needs and concerns. Additionally, children often emulate the behaviour of those with whom they have close relationships.
2. Secondly, it is crucial for children to have a positive sense of self-identity. If they have been consistently told negative things about themselves, they may begin to associate themselves with a life of crime. Thus, it is important to challenge and change these negative perceptions.
3. Finally, giving children a voice and the ability to advocate for themselves is essential to prepare them for life outside the facility. They must have the ability to express themselves and their needs effectively.
THEME
Rehabilitation and reintegration for young individuals within the justice system
SERVICE PROPOSITION
The Shared Experience Mentor (SEM) program is designed to provide each child with a dedicated and trustworthy adult role model committed to supporting and advocating for them. SEMs will be responsible for a small group of students, eating meals with them and meeting each of them personally once a week, and will work closely with their teachers to ensure that each child's unique needs are met.
FOCUS
Reducing recidivism by understanding the needs of the young individuals, including the crafting of roles, onboarding, and measuring success.
IMPACT
The SEM will be a key support for students' mental well-being, fostering self-esteem, confidence, and resilience. Mentors offer a listening ear for personal and academic worries, offering validation and experienced feedback. They aid in goal-setting and navigating challenges, leveraging students' strengths. Serving as role models, mentors inspire vulnerable youth, potentially reducing recidivism, and empowering students for societal integration.
My Responsibilities
END-TO-END: 1. Conducting user research and ecosystem analysis. User Research: Quantitative & Qualitative, insight framing, user interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, creating taxonimies, ethical conduct frameworks. 2. Creating research framework 3. Mapping student journey and day-today schedules to understand pain points and user needs 4. Collaboration and co creations with oasis team, children and other representatives to ideate and conceptualiuse solutions. 5. Facilitating workshops 6. Systems & strategic thinking 7. Deliver detailed suite of tools to guide all stakeholders 8. Visual design & communication 9. Stakeholder management
Overview and Introduction
Context
Youth custody detains children from 10 to 17 who have committed acts of violence, theft, drug abuse, sexual assault, breach, and others. These children usually come from vulnerable communities and attend PRUs or Pupil Referral Units due to poor academic engagement. Beyond the surface, these students are more likely than their peers to suffer from a mental illness or undiagnosed neurodivergent condition.
Oasis will use the principles of Restorative Justice to address the victim's needs and the offender's responsibility through meetings and dialogue, instead of punishment. However, though Oasis Restore already plans on giving students group therapy and employing full-time psychologists, we believe the needs and traumas of the incoming children are more complex than Oasis has currently prepared for.
Ecosystem Analysis
Primary
Secondary
Site Visits
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues within the system, our research approach involved speaking with a diverse range of stakeholders, including representatives from the justice system, educators, and subject matter experts.
We developed various frameworks to suit various research objectives. One of these frameworks was influenced by ethical considerations, as we needed to approach our target groups with great sensitivity. Additionally, we constructed taxonomies to enhance our comprehension of our research themes.
Key Problems
Despite having an overwhelmingly sizeable neurodivergent population in prison, the Justice System does not understand neurodiversity and doesn’t consider it in its policies.
Children that end up within the justice system come from a long history of trauma and deprivation. Still, the justice system takes on a behavioural lens to enact change rather than an empathetic one.
Insight 1
Positive Relationships
Children need positive relationships with adults who can model appropriate behaviour, provide guidance and support during difficult times, and actively listen to their needs and concerns. Additionally, children often emulate the behaviour of those with whom they have close relationships.
Identifying User Needs
Insight 2
Self - Identity
It is crucial for children to have a positive sense of self-identity. If they have been consistently told negative things about themselves, they may begin to associate themselves with a life of crime. Thus, it is important to challenge and change these negative perceptions.
Insight 3
Voice
Giving children a voice and the ability to advocate for themselves is essential to prepare them for life outside the facility. They must have the ability to express themselves and their needs effectively.
Opportunity/Scope
Ideating Strategic Directions
We initially sought to investigate the ideal mentor profile for children and teenagers in educational settings. However, after attempting various profiling methods, we found that none were as effective as simply having a mentor be themselves in front of the children.
Our team developed a comprehensive framework called PREP, which stands for Past, Relationships, Education, and Progression. This framework was designed to serve as a roadmap for stakeholders to identify critical areas for intervention in the lives of children and youth within the justice system.
We realised that creating new policies for the school was not the most effective solution, as the school already had a lot of ideas in these areas but didn't emphasise them cohesively. Therefore, we focused on translating some of the areas outlined in the PREP framework, such as past traumas and healthy relationships, into practical tools that staff members could use to interact proactively with the children.
Solution
To optimise the support provided to students within the secure school system, we proposed implementing a new role, the “Shared-Experience Mentor” (SEM). This individual would:
1. Serve as a friend, confidant, and advocate for the students, while also acting as a mediator between the students and staff during escalated situations.
2. The SEM would possess a common experience with the students that they could significantly identify with.
3. Will work closely with each child to provide the individualised attention and care.
4. Record and track student's progress, aspirations and growth.
5. Provide 2 hours weekly to engage with each student.
Prototype 1 - Relationship map
Prototype 2 - Ikigai map
Prototyping/Testing
Facilitated co-creation workshops and developed artefacts for the SEM to engage with incoming students within the Oasis compound, enabling the mentors to understand, empower and build healthy relationships with the young students.
After conducting our workshop, we observed that the relationship mapping and strength card exercises were well received by the children. Still, the Ikigai map proved to be more challenging for them. The children appeared more comfortable discussing their current states rather than hypothetical futures.
Final Suite of tools develeped to aid SEM in their role
Guide for SEM to use with students to help map out each student's journey from past to future. Includes tools like relationship mapping, strenghth identfication, aspiration mapping & progress tracking
Operations book for Oasis staff & SEM to use including guidelines on hiring, and emotional and conflict regulation models
Guide and collection of progress reports specific and any other reports specific to each student indicating their growth and journey to use as a tool for reflection.
Solution Summary & Impact
Building strong relationships is the core responsibility of a SEM, and the success of this role is largely dependent on the quality of relationships built upon by using the above mentioned tools and booklets. When students leave Oasis, they will take back a box of memories of their happy memories, a letter of recommendation from their mentor, and the future pathways guide to remind them of the progress they made while in school
In the future, we envision a whole network of people who leave the secure school and come together to form one body.
When students graduate from Oasis, they will be activists, not offenders. Oasis will give them back control of their narrative, now it is up to them to write the next chapter.