Support For The Misguided

CLINK

The charity organisation Clink have been successfully running a chain of restaurants since 2009 - providing qualifications and training for finding prisoners a job after release. I posted a few weeks ago about registering for a table at the prison and this week we went along to sample the food and services. The restaurant itself was laid out well in the old prison governors house - so nice in fact, that you had to remember you were in a jail. The atmosphere was very relaxing, the staff attentive and polite.

Being Served
We were able to talk candidly about the serving staff's experiences in the prison and their aspirations for when they were released. The guy who served us, was about to complete the last 2 weeks of an 18 month term and his training qualified him to take a position in catering & hospitality once out of prison. It's a great opportunity for these young men to learn some skills, build up confidence and prepare themselves for being re-integrated into society equipped with the tools for a brighter future.

Serving Others

While I was in the prison, I spoke with the governor about providing graphic design tuition to the inmates. Having a computer and the knowledge for using the software to make logos, design, illustrate and publish work on the Internet, plus opening up the opportunity to advertise services to the world means released prisoners will be equipped to make money independently and not re-offend.

I've just been reading more of Geoff Thompson's book 'Warrior' and the chapter I'm currently on, talks about mentoring or helping others to help themselves. This is something I would like to do more of once I've made the positive changes in myself and can then mentor through example. I have been reading so much life changing information from others over the last 6 weeks and in turn, shared links/referenced/passed on the knowledge from others who have so generously given me their wisdom. This seems like the best thing for everyone to be doing - learning and giving. 

Geoff pops up in my posts from time to time. I'll often have an email from him on a topic, a new video to watch or spare moment to read a bit more of Warrior and it's a little bit weird when these moments happens, because his words have a particular relevance to the time that I'm reading them. So again, another strange coincidence today, the first passage I come to talks about helping the misguided. So, I hope he won't mind me sharing this passage because it has real meaning for this post: 

"The Christians say that when you serve a prisoner you serve God (a literal prisoner, or a person that is imprisoned by addiction or ignorance). The Buddhists also believe that service is the noblest thing we can do as a member of this species."

I made enquiries about doing some work with prisoners a few years back. There is a lot of bureaucracy in government run institutions, so I hit a dead end. This time, I passed on my details to the governor and the guy who served us so maybe something will come of my connections from inside the institutions this time around. In the mean time, I'm going to look into taking a teacher training course, contact a computer training academy and when the prison education services contact me, I'll volunteer some time and be in a good position to set up a program for budding artist and designer offenders to create their own posters, t-shirts and artwork to generate their own income stream and create steps for a positive future.