About the Chaplaincy Project
The Swansea Community Chaplaincy Project aims to support offenders during their bridging period of Custody to Community. This project forms a bridge between the prison, prisoners and the local community by sustaining the help and assistance offenders [and their family/friends where appropriate] receive whilst in custody creating a continuity upon release. The project targets areas identified by the individual offender to ease reintegration into community and help prevent re-offending. The seven specific areas reflect the National Re-offending Action Plan (Home Office 2004) which encompass Accommodation, Education Training & Employment [ETE], Health, Drugs & Alcohol, Debt & Finance, Children & Families, Attitude, Thinking & Behaviour [ATB].
The vision of the Project is to empower individuals to make positive changes in their lifestyles which will enable them to live crime free lives, become economically active and enable good citizenship.
Swansea Community Chaplaincy aims to do this by :-
1. Providing access to trusted support for prisoners both inside and outside of the prison, emphasising motivation and encouraging individuals to consider positive options to life post custody.
2. Providing support and encouragement to facilitate offenders’ access to and sustain participation in services such as alcohol and drug counselling [an essential issue in the prevention of re-offending and individuals becoming more suitable for ETE].
3. Facilitates access to key services [housing, probation, benefit agencies, employment, substance misuse etc.] by attending appointments with beneficiaries if requested, with the aim of acting as an advocate. This role acts as a bridge between the ‘structured’ institutional prison environment with a lifestyle that society expects individuals to survive in i.e. one with choices. Early support reduces the risk of negative experiences / problems thus maximising opportunities to engage in ETE as well as preventing re-offending.
4. Increasing motivation levels and encouraging engagement with external support services and agencies. Highlighting individual potential to move on from a ‘benefit culture’, e.g. ‘I have a right to benefits…’ to possibilities of what can be achieved with the right support and opportunities – Independence rather than dependency. This change reflects itself indirectly in terms of citizenship – I’m being a better neighbour, a better parent and therefore I have a wider positive community impact.
5. Availability to create an assurance that the resettlement process is not an isolated journey. Joys and knock-backs need to be shared with a trusted individual. Support from project staff via listening and advising reinforces that human need and reflects the evidence quoted in the literature (Hough, Allen and Padel 2006).
This post is also available in: Welsh
