The Sycamore Tree Project® (STP) -- developed by Prison Fellowship International for its national affiliates – brings together surrogate victims with offenders for a series of eight meetings in the prison setting. Structured around topics such as the impact of crime, confession, repentance and making amends, these sessions provide a safe place for storytelling and gaining an gaining an understanding of the other side – whether victim or offender. For Karen, these discussions opened the surprising door of befriending a young man who had committed a stabbing crime similar to her daughter’s murder.

One session in particular moved Karen and all the participants. Session six, generally addressing the concepts of restitution, happened to fall on Karen’s daughter’s birthday. So, the process adapted to accommodate this special time. The room was set up with two tables pushed together and covered with white table cloths. A vase of red roses stood on the table along with a few large lit candles and several smaller unlit candles. It began with music and then Karen told her story.

She talked of her daughter, of carrying her during pregnancy, of the various ups and downs of motherhood, and of learning about her daughter’s murder. Karen had been in Paris when the phone call from her husband John came through. He had returned home from work to find their fifteen year old daughter had been stabbed 47 times by another teenage girl. Karen described the incomprehensible moment of that phone call and then a facilitator read a victim impact statement prepared by another family member.  A candle was lit and the group listened to one of the girl’s favourite songs.

In the long silence that followed, one of the prisoner participants -- serving a sentence for crimes of violence -- asked Karen if he could light a candle to remember her daughter. After receiving permission, he proceeded to do so. Another prisoner asked permission as well and receiving permission also lit a candle to remember the child he had killed. A victim participant then lit a candle for her ‘offender’ instead of her murdered husband as she had originally planned.

During the final session, other individuals from local government and families were invited to celebrate the course and the many insights they had gained. John, Karen’s husband, was among these added participants. At first, he hadn't wanted to attend, his anger and pain over the murder making him hesitant. But once there, he began to shift his attitude toward the prisoners even -- especially -- the girl who had killed his daughter.

In an attempt to understand and survive the emotional impact of what happened, he had dehumanised the young woman. However, as he observed the prisoners tell their stories, describe the impact of STP, and interact with his wife, he began to see them as human beings. He gained a degree of empathy for them, and after reflection, his daughter's killer. The attitude shift was so strong that he subsequently agreed to hire an ex-prisoner in the business where he is a manager. This is something Karen says never would have been possible prior to the celebration event.

Karen and John weren’t the only ones affected by the programme. A short time later a prisoner participant wrote to Michael Cockram, programme facilitator for Prison Fellowship Western Australia, describing his own transformation. He now realized, he wrote, that he had held on to anger and hatred against people who had hurt him during his life, and that he had felt justified in doing so. This focus on himself also meant that he had very little understanding of the pain he himself had caused by his offending.

As he watched victim participants deal with their pain in a compassionate and healthy way he knew he had to re-evaluate his own anger. He said, “Seeing the participants in STP and the pain they have carried gave me a chance to reflect on the pain that I had caused to my victims. It was like looking into a mirror, but instead of seeing my pain I saw only that of others.”

In a newspaper interview about her involvement with STP, Karen said, “Forgiveness is not a word to be bandied about lightly. It is almost always difficult to achieve; indeed, sometimes it is impossible. But when you experience forgiveness, either as a recipient or as someone who forgives another, it sets you free. This course has helped me move to a place where I can see that forgiving the person who killed my daughter is possible.”

Many people in Western Australia read that interview. One of them was the young woman who had murdered Karen and John's daughter. In response she asked for a direct meeting with them. While the details of that meeting are private, each party reports that it was very beneficial to all of them.

For more information on Sycamore Tree Project see http://www.pficjr.org/programs/stp

Resources used:

Petchell, Lee-Anne. Forgiveness: Victims seek peace, not retribution. The West Australia Weekend Extra. Saturday October 28, 2006.

Sycamore Tree Project Report posted on Angel Hands, Inc. 

October 2008