Youth EmPOWERed

Youth EmPOWERed
Building the first restorative justice postcode in the world

The Youth Empowered Project

We are incredibly proud to present this local project aligned with our long term vision of building the first restorative justice postcode in the world! Designed by our Founder, Dr. Theo Gavrielides, and aligned with our RJ4All Sports mission it uses the power of sports to address inequalities and promote community cohesion.


Funded by the Ministry of Justice, Youth Empowered combines a series of free group and one-to-one sports, alongside personal development and mentoring activities, while building RJ4All Sports’ capacity to work more effectively with our local criminal justice partners.


Working closely with local partners such as Bacon's College and the Youth Offending Service, Youth Empowered set off on an exciting journey that will put into practice the RJ4All positive and holistic approach to anti-social behaviour and community tensions.


To express an interest in taking part in any of our activities, whether your are a school, a teacher, a youth worker or a young person please contact admin@rj4all.org

Small Group Boxing Classes

These will take place at our Community gym weekly for 1 hour, delivered to up to 5 young people. 


Our qualified Personal Trainers will deliver these sessions capturing physical progress, but also attitudinal change. 

One-to-one Personal Training both indoors (RJ4All Community Gym) and outdoors

These sessions will be delivered for up to an hour for at least 5 young people per week.


They aim to provide:

(a) knowledge on using gym equipment and the right techniques, significance of fitness (b) awareness of good nutrition and self-care 

(c) confidence and self-esteem 

(d) increasing stamina to take part in sports or even preparing for the next London Marathon. 


One-to-one and group sailing sessions

These will take place every Sunday between 9:30 – 15:30 (6 hours) at Greenland Dock, using RJ4All's existing boat, and delivered with our formal partner Tideway Sailability. 


Qualified sailors will train those who have not sailed before, or facilitate sailing with those who are already familiar. 


During the day, other activities will also take place including volunteering for maintaining the boats, cleaning the Greenland dock pontoon and the compound. Sailing is a unique sport that encourages independence, while being able to compete on equal footing with both able and disable peers. 

Youth Club

This will build on our successful youth clubs (see https://www.rj4all.info/youth-clubs); running during February half-term (13th – 17th), it will will run from 10:00 – 16:00 for these 5 days of holiday.


During the youth clubs we combine a series of sports (e.g. step class, indoor cycling, boxing) with cultural and dietary workshops. 


Our mission is to provide a safe and consistent space where disadvantaged youth can benefit from a series of educative, fun, safe and free activities that encourage them to learn more about each other, their community and build resilience. 

Personal development

This activity will combine one-to-one mentoring as well as face-to-face and online training that will remain flexible and adjusted to the young peoples’ needs and realities. 


Our qualified restorative justice practitioners and youth workers will lead on this activity providing at least 1 hour of mentoring, 1 hour of training and 2 hours of volunteering per young person per week. Volunteering will revolve around our Centre’s services such as helping with our food-bank.

Measuring our impact


At RJ4All, we are passionate not only about what we do for our communities, but also in making sure that our impact is measured and put in the context of our charitable aims. Our organisation, as well as all individual projects, operate within a tailored Theory of Change model.


RJ4All worked and designed our Theory of Change for the programme outlining how the programme will contribute to enhancing positive outcomes for vulnerable young people within the context of youth offending and serious youth violence. Please follow the links to view the Youth EmPOWERed project's Theory of Change.

Meet some of our role models and restorative justice practitioners:

Melanie Bruce has been mediating high conflict situations for over 25 years.


 The driving force behind the most successful Peer mediation project in the UK, Mel has trained thousands of young people from the age of 7 to 19 to be mediators in their schools and the local community.


Her project has received awards and recognition Locally, nationally, and internationally, this year the Peer mediation project in Bacon’s College has been shortlisted for the 2022 Peer mediation project of the year award.

Mediating since 1986, David has over 36 years Mediation/Restorative justice experience. 


He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to mediation when he was awarded an MBE in 2007.


David mediates in a wide range of situations ranging from working with residents groups, local authorities and private companies to as well as working on gang related conflict in London; including cases related to shootings, stabbings and homicide. 


Over the years David has featured on Sky 1, BBC News 24, BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, Channel 4, Nigerian TV & ITV. 

Dr. Theo Gavrielides, RJ4All Founder and Director, is the designer and coordinator of Youth Empowred

Thank you to our funders & supporters for making this project possible!

Related Projects & Training Opportunities

A POSITIVE APPROACH

Our programme is based on Gavrielides' restorative justice model, which is a psychosocial intervention aiming to increase resilience and prevent anti-social behaviour. Prof. Gavrielides has been piloting this model through various pilots in the community, schools, prisons, universities and online. 

Instead of “managing” people as “risks”, the model focuses on promoting talents and strengths and through this approach help develop positive identities. This is captured as the Good Lives Model (GLM) articulated through the values and practices of restorative justice including power sharing, dialogue, fairness, equality and autonomy. The model works towards a positive, growth-oriented change in life where a young person works on the development of the values, skills and resources towards life based on human goods.

Building on our former project:

As part of his work against violent radicalisation and extremism, Dr. Gavrielides carried out YEIP, which was a 3-year Erasmus+ funded programme that aimed to design a youth-led, positive policy prevention framework for tackling and preventing the marginalisation and violent radicalisation among young people in Europe. The project started in March 2017 and ended in February 2020.


Led by young people, YEIP  was delivered in partnership with 18 partners results from seven EU countries.  It constructed and tested an innovative, policy intervention model that was founded on the principles of restorative justice, positive psychology and the Good Lives Model (GLM). You can find out more via YEIP's dedicated website and Facebook page.


Read the final comparative YEIP e-book
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