The Common Ground Justice Project’s sold-out campaign event in London’s West End, after a performance of the show Punch. Credit: Common Ground Justice Project.
Giving all victims of crime a real Right To Be Heard.
The Campaign
The Right To Be Heard campaign calls for all victims of crime to have the right to explore Restorative Justice – a proven, powerful way to raise victims’ voices, hold perpetrators to account, and cut reoffending.
The campaign was launched by Jacob Dunne – who served a prison sentence for the one-punch incident that killed James Hodgkinson – together with James’s parents, David Hodgkinson, and Joan Scourfield. Jacob met Joan and David through Restorative Justice, a story told in the award-winning play “Punch” by James Graham.
Right To Be Heard, a joint campaign by restorative justice charity “Why me?” and the Common Ground Justice Project, used the West End and Broadway runs of Punch to spark a national conversation about restorative justice.
The Right To Be Heard campaign combined theatre marketing and post-show talks with high-profile national media features, social media content, email marketing and political communications. It gained widespread national coverage including on Radio 4, LBC, Times Radio, The Rest Is Politics and The Daily Mail. Their petition and email marketing strategy gained over 4,000 signatories, while their social media content went viral, with one TikTok alone reaching over 2 million views.
Campaign spokespeople Jacob Dunne and David Hodgkinson (who met through Restorative Justice after David’s son died from a single punch thrown by Jacob) meeting the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy. Credit: Common Ground Justice Project.
When we launched our campaign on a shoestring, we had no idea where it would lead, but thanks to the amazing work of our team, partners and lived experience spokespeople – who so bravely shared their experience with people in power – we achieved far more than we could have imagined. Being shortlisted for this award is brilliant and unexpected recognition for all that hard work.”
Sam Boyd
Co-Founder, Common Ground Justice Project
The Change
Right To Be Heard achieved real change in awareness and government policy, as restorative justice was thrust into the national spotlight, raising the profile of this little-known but hugely powerful tool to give victims a voice and reduce reoffending.
As a result of this and targeted political engagement, the campaign team and lived experience spokespeople were invited to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister and other ministers, MPs and officials, resulting in a commitment in parliament from the government to widen access to RJ, and an ongoing conversation to make this happen.
By working strategically with cross-party MPs, the campaign also led to two amendments being debated in Parliament to strengthen access to RJ, with the help of RJ participant Paul Kohler MP.
The Future
The Right To Be Heard team continues the work to raise awareness and widen access to restorative justice. They recently met with the Victims Minister to help shape a new version of the Victims Code of Practice, and are working with cross-party MPs to arrange for more victims and perpetrators who’ve benefited from restorative justice to share their experience with politicians, and make the UK a trailblazer in use of restorative justice across the justice system and beyond.
Who else was involved?
The Right To Be Heard campaign team; Why me?; Common Ground Justice Project; Changing Ideas; Breakthrough Impact; David Hodgkinson, Joan Scourfield and Janika Peoples; Centre for Justice Innovation; Calm Mediation; Remedi; Punch the Play; KPPL Productions; The Forgiveness Project; and many others.
