How to Volunteer

Volunteers are essential to the success of Court Diversion. They represent the face and voice of the community. Volunteers help offenders understand how the offender’s actions have affected other people in the community, even in so-called “victimless” crimes.

Training, provided by local programs and the association, prepares volunteers to follow a restorative justice approach and take on a meaningful role in this community-based justice program. Close to 400 Vermonters volunteer on Diversion boards!

Contact the nearest program to learn more about training opportunities.

Community Volunteers Can Play Key Role in Restorative Justice

After 30 years working in law enforcement and corrections in the Northeast Kingdom, Jim C might have had enough of the criminal justice field. However, Jim who is retired, volunteers as a review board member with Essex County Court Diversion, and looks forward to the meetings.

“It’s an opportunity to see some very nice things happen,” says Jim. “And it’s not hard work for us, but for the offenders. It’s all up to them – whether they embrace the contract and run with it.”

We are community members who volunteer our time to talk with someone who has broken the law. We are not a formal, removed authority. We include the person in deciding what should be done and we use every day common language.

Jim says he evaluates how much the person takes responsibility for the incident that led the individual to the review board. The board then discusses how the offender will repair the harm to the victim and the larger community, and address his or her own needs as well. The result is a contract between the board and the offender.

“There’s a fair amount of give and take among the board members about ideas. It’s a neat process to see what others consider important, and sometimes we have to compromise.”

A critical piece in restorative justice is that offenders hear the views of their neighbors.

“We are community members who volunteer our time to talk with someone who has broken the law. We are not a formal, removed authority,” says Jo L who has volunteered for Orange County Court Diversion for over 20 years.

Further, the offender takes an active part in deciding how to make amends.

“We include the person in deciding what should be done and we use every day common language,” says Jo.

Jim contrasts Court Diversion’s effect on the offender to that of the traditional system he worked in for so many years.

“If someone goes to court and gets a fine and probation, the offender might not stay out of trouble. Minor crimes in probation are given an administrative look and no more,” says Jim. The offender just has to check in regularly with the probation officer which, he says, has no positive impact on the individual.

In order to keep people from re-offending, it is important is to cultivate respect for the law. Jo explains that many people are ignorant about why we have laws.

“People don’t understand that laws are there to help us live together. But the diversion process helps people to develop that understanding,” she says. “Out of this experience that could be just punitive comes a sense of belonging to the community.