We know how much relationships matter in terms of our health, happiness, resilience, identity, and personal development. This is confirmed across the human services literature which consistently demonstrates the value from investing time and effort in building positive and meaningful connections and relationships, repairing fractured or ruptured relationships, and helping people to move from ‘relational poverty’ to ‘relational wealth’.
The clear message for probation and youth justice is that relationships should be central and take precedence over processes – approaches should be relational rather than transactional, with attention given to building and maintaining positive relationships and connections at the community, system, organisational, and practitioner levels. These levels and the relationships within them do not exist in isolation from each other but are interrelated and exert influence upon each other.
Across the following section, we highlight the centrality of relationships within current models and frameworks and how these influence probation and youth justice services.