Hello,
“Chris, surely it’s just all about employment, that’s the answer, just get these people working… simple”.
Well, err I suppose in an ideal world, yes.
But as Doris (LandWorks trainee 2022) said, “If you just chuck people that have been in the system out to fend for themselves, they’re going to fail because they’re broken people…you can’t expect broken people to fix themselves. It doesn’t work like that.”.
Often people need time, support and encouragement to become work ready.
The LandWorks approach is to provide holistic support in one place that can over a period of months enable and support people.
Before the pandemic we used an analogy to demonstrate that rather than sending our guys all over the place for different types of support (as many organisations do) it was better delivered in one place such as LandWorks.
The comparison in 2019 went much like this…
When you take your car to the garage to be serviced you don’t expect to be sent to 5 or 6 different workshops to get it sorted. It all happens in one place.
This felt like a good explanation in 2019, but since coming out of the pandemic much has changed and now…
- The cars arriving are in an increasingly poor state, often far from roadworthy.
- The support services have further deteriorated, often overstretched or broken.
- More people are (unhelpfully) ‘adding substances’ into their own fuel.
So, what is our response?
Well as an independent ’garage’ we are flexible, and we do react quickly and effectively to changing circumstances.
In short, we have been improving the overall ‘garage’ experience.
- Increasingly it’s about improving individuals’ well-being and health.
- Developing a more detailed understanding of people’s life stories and issues.
- Increasing mental health support to help reduce self-medication with street drugs.
- Facilitating more workshops, yoga sessions, art and group-work.
But we have also been collecting evidence of what is going wrong. We then aim to inform the powers that be. Recently making representations to the Government independent Sentencing Review and the Justice Committee’s Rehabilitation and Resettlement inquiry.
Yes, employment remains the overall goal.
Yes, it’s harder than it was.
Yes, we are still getting good outcomes at LandWorks, low reoffending and high employment, it’s just sometimes taking longer to get the servicing/rebuild done. And it’s not just about getting back on the road, but heading in the right overall direction for the many miles ahead.
Chris
27th February 2025