The Hopeful Justice Collective is a group of Stoke-on-Trent residents with an interest in creating a fairer city for us all. The Collective has emerged as part of a two-year research project exploring Transformative Justice and its potential to increase connectivity within and between communities, making them stronger, more equal, and more connected.

We are a Collective for the people of Stoke to imagine justice and liberation together through creative practice. We place transformation of our everyday practices, our communities, and our world at the centre of what we do.

We have been working together over a series of creative workshops to explore ideas of justice, community accountability, equality, and social change. The work shared within this installation captures some of the creative work, conversations, and questions we have been investigating together.

Transformative Justice

·      Is built on the premise that top down and state responses to violence reproduce harm 

·      Focuses on overcoming ingrained social and structural barriers to engagement and justice issues

·      Cultivates accountability, healing, resilience, and safety by transforming the conditions that enable harm

·      Develops community engagement to challenge unequal and intersecting power relationships

·      Promotes a bottom-up understanding of the lives and needs of populations. 

The Research Project

‘Transformative justice, women with convictions and uniting communities’ is a research project exploring the effectiveness of transformative justice in creating stronger connections between women with convictions and the communities around them. You can learn more about the project here.

The project is a collaboration between:

·      Residents of Stoke-on-Trent

·      Restoke

·      London South Bank University

·      The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

·      Nottingham Trent University

·      University of Brighton

·      The Ministry of Justice

This project has been funded by the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation collaboration on Understanding Communities, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Academy or the Foundation. Visit www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk  and www.nuffieldfoundation.org.