Hello,
Did you know that the arrival of an elephant on a Friday is thought by many communities to be of great significance?
No, nor did I.
These days there is little that surprises us at LandWorks, but the donation and delivery of a 7’ high wooden Indian elephant on wheels, on Friday, did raise an eyebrow.
It needs a little love and care to restore it, but it’s a great project.
So, it turns out that many people believe elephants symbolise the following…
- Wisdom: Their ability to remember and learn reflects intelligence and experience.
- Strength: Not just physical, but emotional and spiritual strength as well.
- Patience: Slow and steady, elephants remind you to trust the process.
- Protection: Their herd mentality shows love and guardianship.
- Loyalty: Elephants stay connected to their families and communities, inspiring us to nurture our own bonds
I know, and you’re probably already there already; and I agree, this also represents LandWorks rather well.
Especially around community.
This is interesting because our annual Evaluation report has just been published and it explores and recognises that LandWorks is a “desistance-supporting community”.
Again, you are ahead of me, asking… What is a desistance supporting community?
Well, desistance is the term used by criminologists to describe and explain the challenges that people in the criminal justice system face and the processes that they navigate as they make the decision to stop offending.
Desistance is a complex interactional process with some studies highlighting the psychological changes in people’s developmental maturity, cognitive skills and self-esteem while others highlight the social changes in family, friendship, employment and other support networks.
Dave (trainee) said… “You treat everyone with respect… everyone understands the principle, you want respect, you treat other people with respect… No-one’s further down, no-one’s further down than anyone else, everyone’s equal, which is what I like. That’s probably built my confidence the most. It’s the people, the people are very nice…”
Although the evaluation report doesn’t explicitly mention elephants, at all, (maybe next year), it is a very interesting read and presents some quite startling facts about our trainees’ lives, (page 6 of our evaluation report) experiences and offending histories.
We haven’t yet got a name for our lovely elephant, any ideas very welcome.
Chris
16th January 2025