The State Support Services Center (RTK) is seeking applications for its Small Grant Scheme - Developing Restorative Justice Measures in Estonia. The purpose of the grant is to expand the use of approaches and methods based on restorative justice in institutions for children and youth, social, child protection and youth work, the police, the prosecutor’s office, courts, probation services, closed institutions, including prisons, and in society in general.

This grant program is established on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 signed between the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Estonia, the Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 signed between the Republic of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Estonia as well as according to the Regulation of the Government of the Republic of Estonia No 55 from 05.07.2018 "The rules and procedures for application for and implementation of the grants from the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms 2014-2021”.

Programme Activities

The activities supported under the SGS are:

• piloting new methods based on restorative justice in working with juvenile and young offenders,
• testing the approaches and methods based on restorative justice in various environments, including institutions for children and youth, social, child protection and youth work, the police, the prosecutor’s office, courts, probation services, and closed institutions, including prisons,
• awareness-raising activities, including information days, information materials, printed matter, video and audio recordings, etc.,
• activities for the inclusion of community in raising awareness and improving knowledge and skills regarding restorative justice,
• training activities, including training courses, seminars, workshops, exchange of practices, training courses for future trainers, etc.,
• pilot projects with the aim of creating a community based on restorative justice, e.g. restorative school, workplace, city, etc.,
• production of study materials, guidelines, instructions, etc.,
• other supporting activities that help to expand the use of restorative justice.

Funding Information

• The budget of the small grants scheme is 400 000 euros.
• Project grant to be awarded to a single project falls between 30 000 – 200 000 euros.
• The maximum duration of projects funded by the call is 24 months.

Programme Results

The output indicators of the grant award are cumulatively for the whole application round:

• at least 2 information campaigns on restorative justice;
• at least 3 new restorative justice initiatives in the criminal justice system, in schools or in the community;
• at least 10 trainers trained in restorative justice.

As a result of the support, the proportion of juveniles who have committed offenses during their lifetime will decrease from 18% to 16% (according to the results of the survey on juvenile delinquency conducted in 2023).

Eligibility Criteria

• An eligible applicant is:
  • an entity, public or private, commercial or non-commercial, or non-governmental organisation, established as a legal person Estonia;
  • an international organisation acting in Estonia.
• For achieving the project goals, the applicant must appoint a project manager, and a restorative justice trainer and/or creator/implementer of restorative justice methods into its project team.
• Any public or private entity, commercial or non-commercial, as well as nongovernmental organisations established as a legal person either in Estonia, Norway, in some other Beneficiary State (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary,  Latvia Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) or in Russia are considered eligible project partners.

For more information, visit State Support Services Center.