An outdoor work programme called The Skill Mill is giving teenage offenders in the UK an opportunity to gain qualifications and eventually enter the job market.
Photo: Supplied / The Skill Mill
So far, 57 young people (including five women) have completed The Skill Mill's six-month programme and only four of these have been back to court.
The model is not only successful, it's also simple and easy to replicate, director David Parks says.
Young offenders generally have a heap of problems to overcome, but the vast majority aren't bad kids, says Parks, who has worked in criminal justice for over 25 years.
Often they've had chaotic upbringings in communities with high levels of poverty and intergenerational unemployment.
But while many are low on skills and education experience, they often enjoy practical work, Parks says.
The Skill Mill was born out of his frustration that they weren't being given the opportunity to get into it.
Many similar initiatives come and go through their dependence on grant funding, so Parks knew The Skill Mill had to be commercially viable to last, he says.
Eventually, he established a network of partner organisations willing to pay for the work to be done, but it wasn't easy.
"Working in the public sector that kind of mindset isn't necessarily there … It's been quite enlightening to think about selling services which are ultimately going to improve the lives of these kids."
As the young people have generally had a poor experience of the education system, they often don't place much value on getting a qualification when they start the programme, but realise the importance of that piece of paper when they get out into the workforce later, he says.
"It's incumbent upon us to make sure that when they leave us they have some formal accreditation for what they've done."
Since 2014, 57 young people have been through the programme with only four have returning to court.
This is a 7 percent reoffending rate, compared with the average UK rates of 50 percent of people re-offending within a year, Parks says.
Two years ago the city of Tallinn in Estonia started running The Skill Mill programme and soon it will start up in the city of Riga in Latvia.
"This model is so simple and so replicable."
Most of the young people who've come through the programme have grown up in the inner city and haven't had much contact with the natural environment before, he says.
"Seeing frogs for the first time, learning about tree species, learning about the risks in nature, all of those things really matter … Coming into contact with the great outdoors is really a key thing."
David Parks recently appeared at the Social Enterprise World Forum in Christchurch.
