Stories from the Pacific

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Australia Hosts Camps for Inmates' Children

PF Australia's Kamp-for-Kids is changing the lives of prisoners' children.

Encouraging STP Facilitators in New Zealand

Earlier this year, PF New Zealand brought together seventeen facilitators for a Sycamore Tree Project® conference. The event provided an opportunity for discussing issues, sharing experiences and resources, and training. Along with the interaction among the facilitators, the event also featured speakers from PF New Zealand management.

Where Hardened Criminals Find the Light

The 13 November edition of the Dominion Post featured Prison Fellowship New Zealand's (PFNZ) faith-based prison unit at Rimutaka Prison. One inmate participant, who describes his crime as “minutes of madness,” says “Being here makes us accept what we done was wrong. I think it's harder here than mainstream prison, because the expectations are a lot more.”

PF New Zealand’s Faith-based Unit

Te Korowa Whakapono — the PF New Zealand faith-based unit that opened in October 2003— seeks to reduce offending of the 60 individuals involved in the programme at any one time. Along with the Operation Jericho aftercare programme, the unit provides a therapeutic and restorative community built on Christian principles and practices to provide effective rehabilitation and reintegration.

Helping Churches Learn about Restorative Justice

In early September, PF Australia (South Australia) mailed sermon notes about restorative justice to 140 of its supporting churches. The notes, written by coordinating chaplain Bill Reddin, were meant to encourage the churches to prepare for the International Restorative Justice Week observed during the third full week of November.

STP Going Strong in Western Australia

On 9 August, PF Australia (Western Australia) celebrated its 34th Sycamore Tree Project®. The course, the fifth to be run in Casuarina prison, included twelve prisoner and seven victim participants. They each reported meeting their personal goals for participating in the programme. Participant comments included:

PF CNMI Reaching Out to Churches through STP

In mid-April, PF CNMI facilitated a two-night training seminar for seven churches in Saipan. Hosted by the Life in the Son Church, the training sought to:

STP Facilitator Experiences

A recent Master’s thesis from the Notre Dame University of Australia explores the experiences of STP facilitators and facilitator assistants in Western Australia. The author, Jean Mackenzie, said that her purpose was to “describe in detail the experience of facilitating, or assisting in facilitating, groups participating in a restorative justice program….”

Solomon Islands: Community Healing and Reconciliation

In response to ongoing tensions in the affected communities, PF Solomon Islands and its ministry partners launched the Sycamore Tree Project® to explore healing and reconciliation in response to ethnic conflict.

Sycamore Tree Project® News from CNMI

Having run Sycamore Tree Project® in prisons since 2008, PF Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) realised that the programme’s restorative justice principles could be applied outside the prison community. So in early 2009, the ministry trained a group of pastors and church lay leaders to use STP with their congregations. During one of these sessions at the Cornerstone Christian Church, a member said the course helped him gain a fresh perspective on crime from the standpoint of offenders and victims alike.