Restorative Practices with Sweden’s Homeless: The Stockholm City Mission

Source: (2004) Restorative Practices e-Forum. 23 March. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices. Downloaded 20 May 2004.

While restorative justice is typically connected with criminal justice contexts, the homeless people of Stockholm, Sweden, are benefiting from restorative practices through the programs of the Stockholm City Mission, a 150 year-old nonprofit institution. In this article Laura Mirsky describes how the City Mission came to implement restorative practices. The development began when Swedish social services underwent a financial crisis in the late 1980s that resulted in many people in need of physical and mental care ending up homeless. The staff of the mission looked for new methods in their efforts to aid these folks. Through contacts with restorative justice advocates in Australia, City Mission staff were trained in Real Justice restorative practices (stemming from other contacts in the United States). With examples from daily activities, Mirsky shows ways in which this mission is applying restorative ideas and processes to assist the homeless in Stockholm.