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About this poster

This poster from the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ) highlights work which the organisation has carried out around the promise.

Among other work, this includes the development of two projects: Reimagining Justice and Reimagining Secure Care.

Reimagining Justice

Through the Promise Partnership, CYCJ has been funded to develop different areas of work around keeping the promise— and this has led to growth in their Reimagining Justice team.

This team supports local authorities to reimagine their services, in partnership with children, young people and families. By working together, they design and develop the rights-respecting services:

  • which children and young people want to see, and
  • which will meet their needs.

Learn more about CYCJ’s work on Reimagining Justice.

CYCJ's poster from The Promise Scotland's conference.

Reimagining Secure Care

The promise is clear that children shouldn’t end up in prison or prison-like settings.

CYCJ’s work emphasises that Scotland needs alternative services and structures which provide vulnerable children with rights-based , trauma-informed support.

Its Reimagining Secure Care project uses the Scottish Approach to Service Design to develop options for this kind of support, which children can use:

  • before entering secure care,
  • during their time in secure care,
  • after secure care, and
  • as an alternative to secure care.

Learn more about CYCJ’s work on Reimagining Secure Care.

Download this poster.


The text of this poster reads:

Keeping the Promise for Children in Conflict with the Law

Who we are…

At the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) we want to contribute to the nationwide effort to make Scotland ‘the best place in the world to grow up’ for care and justice experienced children and young people. Our work is shared across three areas: research, practice development, and participation and engagement.

Over the last year we have put a lot of energy and resource into doing our bit to #KeepThePromise, energising existing projects and building new ones.

Discovering…

At CYCJ we are at the forefront of changes to policy and practice. Our position helps us ensure that children’s rights are equally upheld , even throughout their most challenging experiences. Our research and practice development teams identify gaps in policy and practice. This means that we can inform the government and the care and justice workforce on what works well and what needs to change. Discovery is also at the heart of participation at CYCJ. We strive to ensure all of our work is guided by the voice and experience of children and young people. By doing this we can enact change that meets what they need, as identified by them.

Empowering…

Relationships are at the core of our work. Our dedicated Participation and Engagement team foster supportive relationships with children and young people with lived experience to ensure that their voices are heard and respected across practice, policy, and research. Utilising our relationships with the workforce, academia, children and young people, policymakers and more, we hold a space in which all forms of knowledge and expertise are valued equally . We also ensure that children, young people, their families, and those working in the sector have the information they need, presented to them in a way that works for them.

Examples of our Participation work during the past year include:

  • Supporting children and young people to influence the Bairns’ Hoose Standards and award
  • funding to Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder sites across Scotland.
  • Our Young Researchers project co-producing a research toolkit designed and developed by and for children and young people to empower them to carry out research on issues that matter to them.
  • Supporting young people’s involvement in policy and practice through STARR, Scotland’s only curated space for those with secure care experience, as well as Youth Just Us and Inside Out, based in HMYOI Polmont, in partnership with Staf.

Reimagining…

Over the last year we have been developing two projects:

Reimagining Justice and Reimagining Secure Care

Both these pieces of work aim to build rights-respecting services alongside the children, young people and adults who access and deliver them.

Reimagining Justice

CYCJ has been funded by the Promise Partnership to develop different areas of work across Scotland, to Keep the Promise. This has led to growth in our Reimagining Justice team, who support local authorities to collaboratively reimagine their services in partnership with children, young people and families. Working together they design and develop the rights respecting services that children and young people want to see, and which will meet their needs.

Check out our website cycj.org.uk for more information on our work, including events and training, and our blog and podcast.

Just the Right Space is home to lots of useful links and resources for children, young people and families navigating the justice systems.