Staff
Our brilliant staff oversee the running of the Essex Restorative and Mediation Service, including supporting and recruiting our facilitators, liaising with service users and other organisations, arranging mediation / RJ conferences, and delivering training. They are all experienced, accredited RJ and mediation practitioners. The team currently consists of a service delivery manager, two RJ co-ordinators, an RJ administrator, and a support staff member.
Emma Goddard: Service Delivery Manager
Emma set up and has managed the service since 2015 when it was first established. She oversees service delivery and also delivers all in house training to facilitators. Emma’s RJ career began in HMP Leeds where she implemented an RJ service and achieved the first Restorative Services Quality Mark in a prison. Emma has worked on a range of cases, including sexual offences and community issues, and is trained in Restorative Justice, Mediation, Case Supervision and Training and holds a degree in Forensic Psychology.
Abby Hare: RJ Co-ordinator
Abby joined the service in 2021 following 3 years of working with victims. Abby has a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology from the University of Kent and is currently studying for her PhD in Forensic Psychology where she is interested in understanding stalking and harassment behaviours amongst young people. Abby is responsible for the supervision or facilitators and referrals, the delivery of training and awareness sessions across Essex, and contributes to the development of ERMS. Abby is an accredited mediator and is also trained in restorative justice, case supervision and conflict coaching, and has facilitated a range of cases including mediation, community projects and complex and sensitive cases.
Kasia Grabka: RJ Co-ordinator
Kasia joined the service in September 2016 in response to meeting the increasing demand for the service amongst Essex citizens. Kasia is an accredited mediator and an accredited RJ practitioner and recently completed her Masters degree in Forensic Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Kasia is mainly responsible for referral supervision, supporting facilitators and promoting and developing the service. She is proactive in developing the role, reviewing and implementing RJ activities and procedures to ensure the force uses RJ to a high standard, in line with the Victim’s Code of Practice.
Mark Smith: RJ Co-ordinator
Mark has worked within restorative justice for 7 years and joined ERMS as an RJ Coordinator in April 2023. Prior to joining the Office Team, Mark was a volunteer facilitator with ERMS for over 5 years and was the RJ Coordinator at Why Me? for 3 years. As part of his role, Mark provides support to facilitators via individual and case supervision, and helps to monitor referrals. Mark also contributes to the delivery of training across Essex to promote restorative justice and ERMS.
Toni Buck: Service Administrator
Toni was a volunteer facilitator with ERMS for 5 years before joining the Office Team as the service Administrator. Toni is responsible for monitoring and processing referrals to ERMS, responding to queries from partner agencies and participants, and helps support the day-to-day running of ERMS. Toni has facilitated a range of cases during her time with ERMS and continues to facilitate restorative and mediation processes.
Richard Wicks: Admin Support
Richard began his work within Policing around 8 years ago and has assisted the ERMS with administrative work since 2015. He is one of the team members participants may speak to when we receive a new referral, explaining our service and how we can assist. He is also a coordinator for the ICV scheme in Essex.
Facilitators
One of our core values is to work with people who share our passion for restorative justice and conflict resolution. Our services are delivered by around 40 accredited mediation and Restorative Justice facilitators. Many hold other full or part time jobs, whilst some are retired. All of our facilitators share our enthusiasm and they voluntarily give up some of their spare time to allow ERMS to deliver a valuable service to participants. If you’re interested in joining our team please contact us. Meet some of our facilitators:
Laurie has been with ERMS for just over 4 years. He has completed a wide range of cases including sensitive and complex cases and gets involved with delivering training for professionals to increase referrals and awareness. He says: “It’s great working with great people and there’s no doubt that it keeps my brain going! I was with Essex Police and retired and then was a magistrate for 10 years. I love my golf and have been Secretary and Captain of Essex Police Golf Club”.
Stephen has been with ERMS since 2017. He has been a mediator since 2003 working across the public sector. Stephen says “it has been great to further develop my mediation skills as well as learning about Restorative Justice and seeing the benefit it can bring to the people we work with”. Since joining our team, he has completed a wide range of cases including sensitive and complex cases, delivers training and has just been awarded the Essex Police Volunteer of the Year which is a great acknowledgement of the support we give across Essex.
Jane is a qualified coach and has 17 years of corporate experience, some of which on a global level, which has enabled her to excel in building relationships, creating trust and empowering clients to create change in their lives. Since 2010, Jane has been designing and delivering holistic employability and wellbeing courses working with a range of partners including local Government, Essex Police and Probation services. Jane joined the service as a facilitator in January 2020.
Doug joined the service in 2017 after a successful career in teaching. As well as facilitating a range of cases for the service, Doug also delivers training to a range of partners including Essex Police, Councils and Victim Services. This role means that more professionals are aware of the work that we do and are able to refer to us. Doug also uses his experience to mentor less experienced volunteers to improve their practice, knowledge and confidence.
Lade has been volunteering with ERMS since 2016 and has worked on a variety of different cases with different communities across the county. Outside of her volunteering role, Lade has a vast knowledge of Data Protection and is always helping the service in this area.
Emma has volunteered with the service since 2016 and has worked with a variety of cases, including complex and sensitive offences. Emma has an LLB with honours in Law from the University of Law in London. She took her masters through the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and qualified in 2019 as a Legal Executive and now deals mostly with property and family law and litigation. Emma is also an accredited mediator which she uses in her day job as well as her volunteer role. Emma loves to play games, watch films and eat out with her family and friends and enjoys family time with her partner, 2 young children and big fluffy dog.
