How: The pilot of the communities of practice will run monthly for eight sessions in each site. Sarah Bartley will run the first two sessions:

  • Session 1: Transformative Justice and Harm Reduction: Themes that matter to the group

  • Session 2: Building a Community of Practice (CoP)

Then CoP members will be invited to propose and run one of the remaining 6 sessions. There is a £250 facilitator fee for each session so facilitators will be paid if they run a session (either the full amount if they run it solo or split between co-facilitators). 

Not all CoP members will run a session; we will collectively agree a process for deciding on which sessions go forward. 

All sessions will be supported by a trauma informed practitioner whose role in the space will be to offer members help, if necessary beyond the collective support of the CoP. 

CoP members will be asked to fill in a questionnaire and attend a focus group. This is to help us understand members experiences of the CoP and consider ways we might grow the work beyond a pilot.

Why: This project emerges out of ‘Transformative justice, women with convictions and uniting communities’, a research project funded by the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation. Researchers Tirion Havard, Sarah Bartley, Ian Mahoney, Chris Magill, Chris Flood, TerriAnn Cousins, and Sylvia Amanquah worked with the Hopeful Justice Collective (at Restoke) and found a need for more opportunities for skills sharing and skill building for practitioners keen to engage with justice in their creative practice. 

Where: Stoke-on-Trent Sessions will run monthly at Restoke (Fenton Town Hall, Albert Square, ST4 3FA)

When: 13.00-16.00 on 3 Nov, 1 Dec, 12 Jan, 9 Feb, 9 March, 20 April, 11 May, 8 June 

We would ask that you commit to attending all the sessions if you join the CoP (with the understanding that unexpected things could crop up!)

How to apply to be a CoP member:

Email Sarah a 500-word statement OR a 3-minute voice note / audio recording

Your statement/voice note should talk about: 

  • What kind of creative or community practice you are involved in

  • Why you are interested in being a member of the Community of Practice

Send to: Sarah.bartley@cssd.ac.uk

DEADLINE: 2nd September 2026

Membership will be limited to 15 people for this pilot. We will respond to all applicants in September. Please reach out to Sarah by email if you have any questions in the meantime.

This work has been supported by Impact funding from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. 

Arts, Justice, and Harm Reduction: A Community of Practice

Deadline to apply - 2nd September

This Community of Practice aims to develop, experiment with, and share ways of using creative practice to explore abolition, harm reduction and transformative justice. We hope to work collectively to build the capacity of practitioners to engage with and apply these ideas in their practice. We believe in the significant contributions community artists and community support practitioners can make to shared explorations of justice, accountability and harm.

Who: The community of practice is open to arts practitioners and those working in community support services who are interested in creative practice. We will hold two parallel communities of practice, one in Stoke on Trent (Restoke) and one in London (Central School of Speech and Drama). Each will have up to 15 members. 

Instigated and organised by Sarah Bartley.