It’s been five years since the city’s restorative justice program launched, and judging by the numbers, it’s been working.

Bringing victim and offender together among peers, family and friends in a setting akin to a First Nations’ healing circle, the experience appears to be having a more positive impact than the adversarial approach found in the justice system.

Feelings, emotions, motivation, background history and more get laid out on the table for all participants to see in the program operated by Touchstone Family Association.

Touchstone executive director Michael McCoy said the program has improved since 2004, and core funding from the city has brought it some much-sought-after stability.

“I think by city council providing us with some fiscal security for the next three years, we’ve been able to relax,” he said.

And so Touchstone has been able to focus on its volunteer-driven restorative justice program, and the details of its delivery.

When it was first brought to Richmond, restorative justice was new not just to Touchstone, but the RCMP and local community.

Since 2004, Touchstone has co-ordinated 191 cases.

Today, the program has a dozen volunteers in the program, where there were none when it was introduced.

Next week is Restorative Justice week, and Touchstone is bringing in Suman and Manjit Virk, parents of Reena Virk, the Victoria teen who was murdered in 1997 by a school bully.

They will be sharing their family’s tragic story inside council chambers at City Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 18 from 7 to 9 p.m. (Seating is limited. To register call 604-279-5599.)

Consistent funding has allowed Touchstone to focus on improving its service delivery, and McCoy said the Virk’s appearance, sponsored by Cohen Buchan Edwards Lawyers and Solicitors, is a big part of that.

Figures the association released to the City of Richmond last month indicate the program is hitting all the right marks.

Of the 67 youth who completed their restorative justice agreements between 2004 and 2006, just 12 per cent re-offended, or about one in eight. That’s compared to the more than half (57 per cent) of the seven youth who didn’t complete their agreements who then went on to re-offend. Of those youth who were referred to the program but didn’t participate, 61.5 per cent re-offended.

Among adults, the numbers are similarly brow-raising.

None of the 24 adults who completed the program re-offended, while nearly a third of the 13 adults to didn’t participate did re-offend.