“By teaching young people what it’s like to not be a part of the community, through real life experience by people who have spent many years being shunned by society for their criminal misdeeds; you empower them with the knowledge to be a better member of the community”.
Dave [Ex Career Criminal]
THE PROGRAMME
In 2008 we began our Giving Back school programme taking ex- offenders into schools to teach them that getting involved in a life of crime is just not worth it.
We believe that where there is a lack of understanding, communication and awareness of a child’s needs and those of the needs of the people in the community; ultimately each group will suffer from some form of social exclusion and discrimination.
Where the young are concerned, many will seek out those qualities of acceptance, social integration and support through gangs and Anti social behaviour.
WHY GIVING BACK?
Our programme is centered around the fact that young people learn faster from other people’s experiences whether good or bad and therefore their development involves the willingness, tolerance and understanding from the whole community.
We recognise more than most, that young people:
- Require Security, Consistency, and Continuity in the community
- Desire, Praise, Affirmation, and Recognition at home and in school
- Seek new and challenging experiences and activities
- Long to be trusted, respected and given responsibility
Furthermore we recognise the different blends of dynamics that drive young people into criminal behaviour.
No one is better equipped to educate and challenge young people’s perceptions of anti social behaviour than the real life experiences of ex career criminals who have now gone straight and devote their time to teaching kids the severe detrimental effects of drugs, violence and the whole sub culture of the criminal world.
As a result of our programme we bridge the gap so that communities can achieve true and measurable progression and become sustainable; continuing their growth into the lives of the future generations.
OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
It is our belief that education training and employment can develop skills for life, and is a strong factor in preventing offending and re-offending behaviour. Informing young people about the consequences that come from engaging in crime we believe is critical to ensuring positive life outcomes and successful pathways to adulthood.
With that said through real experiences built up over many years involved in a life of crime we teach the youth of today:
- Their mistakes, “what the signs are” and how to avoid them
- The evolution of drugs and how so called soft drugs lead on to harder drugs
- How easy it is to fall into a life of crime and how to avoid it
- The knock on-effects of a criminal record and the detrimental effects it has on your future, family and ultimately the community
- To think hard about their future choices and friendships
- How to change if you are already “caught up” in a pattern of anti social behaviour
We know that many young people in the youth justice system face multiple barriers; they have complex needs, and often battle with “inner conflicts”. The prevailing forces of today have separated young people from the essence of what makes life so exciting and rewarding . Through our experience we know that a student will not listen to their teacher about drugs and often knows more than they do.
Drug education or Anti social behaviour cannot be learnt from a book, you cannot portray how easy it is to fall into addiction or claw your way free unless you have lived that life.
It’s those real life experiences and convictions that will inevitably lead someone on the edge of that life, away from it. We simply tell it from the heart ’unglamorising criminal behaviour’ whereby preventing young people suffering from social isolation and exclusion. We believe that true and lasting development can only be achieved if young people’s individual needs are met. Therefore our school project encourages young people to develop a variety of skills through classroom activity based scenario’s as well as community based visits with opportunities to meet members of community action groups, voluntary groups, emergency services.
The Youth Group And New Endeavours Mentoring Programme will target those “at risk” of offending, living in social deprivation, as well as young people facing personal life challenges who require one-to-one support. All the youth training courses will offer opportunities which will be educative in empowering the individual to advocate and identify barriers in their lives. By bringing participative cohesion between the young people and the youth committee it will enable them to become actively involved in partnerships in the learning process. This in turn will enable them to develop decision making abilities by which they contrive to empower themselves, thereby enhancing citizen satisfaction through equality of opportunity.
The young people will include those with diverse health needs who are experiencing difficulties in relation to drug misuse within their families, domestic violence, social isolation and suffering from a lack of aspiration. It is a possibility that these young people may also belong to lone parent families who face a variety of challenges, including financial constraints, where there may be a lack of positive role models, which in turn creates more disadvantages.
GRADUATION
Each child graduates with a “Giving back community certificate” and a “What to do Action Planner” The planner reinforces the possible consequences of their actions, highlights “what to do next when things go wrong” and also serves as a call to action plan for their future goals setting.
Over the last 10 months we have documented case studies from head-teachers, teachers and over 1000 children from Schools, Colleges, and Pupil Referral units on the impact of the programme which is delivered over 1 day. Through our future community partnerships we will be more able to measure, monitor and review how effective our programme is having in the community.
