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Calls for businesses to ‘step up and give ex-offenders another chance’
Recognising employment as the key to reducing offending, crime prevention charity Key4Life brought together over 25 business leaders from Bristol and the South West to meet a group of ex-offenders.
The contingent of local businesses came to Triodos Bank on Deanery Road prompting a chance for them to engage with the group and open up prospective employment opportunities.
According to government statistics, adults released from custodial sentences of less than 12 months has a reoffending rate 55.5 per cent while the juvenile offenders has a reoffending rate 34.2 per cent.
The business representatives attending – from companies such as Atkins Realis, Hays, Lancer Scott, Nisbets, RG Group, Wagamama and Wessex Water – conducted a series of mock interviews with 15 ex-offenders currently enrolled on Key4Life’s six-month rehabilitation programme, which included individuals who had been in and out of prison since their early teens.
“We have been continuously shown that meaningful employment is the absolute gamechanger,” said Eva Hamilton
Armed with CVs and a renewed sense of purpose, the group was eager to make an impression on the business representatives.
Eva Hamilton, chief executive of Key4Life, who founded the charity in 2012 in response to the London Riots of 2011, said: “A staggering 12 million people have a criminal record in Britain, representative of a huge pool of untapped talent, largely overlooked by society.
“Research shows that 50 per cent of UK employers would not employ an ex-offender, and for far too many companies, inviting job applications from people with convictions is purely a tick box exercise.
“In Key4Life’s 12 years of rehabilitating ex-offenders we have been continuously shown that meaningful employment is the absolute gamechanger, giving our young men the stability, self-respect and sense of purpose they need to stay away from crime.
“We need to see businesses really step up now and give ex-offenders another chance.”
The 15 Key4Life participants, which included many young men who had never been interviewed before.
Zoe Joyner, community & engagement manager for Nisbets, a catering equipment supplier, which has previously employed ex-offenders, said: “The men were fantastic, well prepared and ready for work. Nisbets has been involved with Key4Life for 10 years and today really showed how far the charity has come.”
Key4Life boasts of a track record for reducing reoffending where 65 per cent of Key4Life’s graduates are gainfully employed within a year of release, compared to government rate of 16 per cent.
Danny, a participant who wants to be a restaurant chef, said:” It’s been inspirational. There were so many companies willing to give ex-offenders chances when normally there’s always no chance for men like me coming out of prison. It’s like a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Participants received feedback from the business leaders who attended the event
Lauren Robbin, early careers partner at Wagamama, who expressed interest in providing Danny with a work taster in one of their restaurants, said: “We have met some incredible men today, looking to find meaningful careers.
“They’ve got amazing skills, and by pushing aside the barriers that normally block them from getting access to employers, Key4Life has helped them see that they are worthy of.”
All photos: Harry Gutteridge
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