Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing, met with community service teams in Stranraer on 8 July, with the CJA Convenor and Vice Convenor joining this visit. A very informative tour around the new Community Service workshop demonstrated work underway with a recently formed women’s group, and outlined information around beach cleaning programme and other activities. This was followed by visits to two community service teams taking part in beach clean-ups around the town.

South West Scotland Community Justice Authority has been successful in our bid to deliver the Caledonian System as part of our strategy for tackling the high levels of domestic abuse within the area.An additional £670K of funding has been provided by the Scottish Government which will, for the first time, enable us to deliver direct behaviour change work to perpetrators while at the same time providing support to partners, ex-partners and children. The funding has been provided for one year. South West Scotland is the only Community Justice Authority in Scotland which has been funded to deliver the service across the whole area

Kenny MacAskill, Justice Secretary, joined South West Scotland Community Justice Authority and Barnardo’s Scotland, on 7 June 2010, at the launch of their new service in Ayrshire, Women in Focus. The service works with women offenders to reduce their levels of reoffending and reconviction; reduce the levels of breached Community Based Orders and help them make a positive contribution to their local community.