Breaking the cycle of reoffending
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Beno Hill, Dartington intern, writes on the LandWorks project…
Dartington’s most recent Community Conversation took place on 25th July 2012 and focused on Dartington LandWorks. This new project which is in early development aims to provide a network of support and training in landscape construction to people recently released from prison.
We believe that Dartington LandWorks is an opportunity for the Dartington Hall Estate and the surrounding community to make a huge difference to the lives of those who are arguably most in need of the resources and expertise offered here, but who otherwise would probably be the least likely to receive it.
The Community Conversation opened with an introduction by Celia Atherton, Dartington’s Director of Social Justice. We then heard from Chris Parsons, who will be in charge of the day-to-day managing of Dartington LandWorks (when we have secured the funding necessary to begin the project in earnest), and who has experience in both running a landscape construction company and employing ex-prisoners. The final speaker was Karl Byrne, an ex-prisoner himself, who was employed by Chris and who now works with other ex-offenders. The rest of the meeting was then given over to questions from the audience.
You can listen to the speakers from the night here:
You can also read some of the frequently asked questions about Dartington LandWorks here.
Those who attended the event were very supportive of the project in general, with many coming from a background of working with ex-offenders or vulnerable people. This made the discussion very focussed and informative, with excellent ideas put forward, and possible weaknesses or potential problems explored. If you’d like to be kept up to date with developments about Dartington LandWorks please enter your details at the bottom of this page http://www.dartington.org/landworks