The Mint House is an Oxford-based charity working to grow restorative justice and practice in our city, county and beyond.

I have been a trustee of The Mint House since 2020 and I have seen how beneficial restorative approaches can be in building healthy, respectful relationships and repairing harm where there’s been crime or conflict. I am particularly interested in the ways that restorative practice can be used to address conflict in education settings, social services and faith communities. We are currently working hard to help set up a restorative faith network, initially for Christian individuals and organisations.

We have also been piloting a project working alongside the Lived Experience Advisory Forum for homelessness, Oxford City Council’s homelessness team, and other service providers. This uses restorative practice to overcome conflict between clients and staff, seeking to reduce evictions from temporary accommodation, and to improve relationships within the sector.

In order to continue facilitating this important and transformative work, The Mint House needs to raise funds to meet its costs, so I am again out running in order to raise money towards this. After running the Oxford Half Marathon to support the Mint House a few years ago, and completing some longer races in the meantime, I felt a bigger challenge was in order. So, I’m going to attempt to complete ‘The Devil o the Highlands’, which is a 42 mile ultra-marathon on the northern half of the West Highland Way, from Tyndrum to Fort William, including some of the most spectacular scenery in the Highlands (if the weather is good enough to see it!), as well as some 1750m worth of climbing. I expect it will take somewhere between 9 and 10 hours for me to complete the race, but it could well take longer!

Anything you can give to support The Mint House would be most appreciated.

You can find out some information about the race here: https://www.devilothehighlandsfootrace.co.uk/

You can find out more about The Mint House here: https://www.minthouseoxford.co.uk/the-mint-house