GENERATING SELF BELIEF

'It was not the lack of ability, that limited my people, but the lack of opportunity' - Nelson Mandela.

This quote speaks a lot of truth in the lives of people caught up in the criminal justice system. For many who find themselves in prison, going to prison was their only certainty. A certainty created by a lack of opportunity. It is this lack of opportunity that, in simple terms, means for some, the only aspiration is prison.

Once in prison, it is so important that people are provided with opportunities to improve their aspirations. Improving aspiration can in itself improve a person’s motivation to set goals and realise positive change.

That is exactly what we hope to achieve through our bars to a business project. We give offenders the opportunity to build a personal brand that is based on their passions, skills and interests.

Discovering more about themselves helps them to understand their 'why'. Asking the question, 'why do I want to exist' not 'why do I exist'. The excitement this brings enables offenders to channel their innate creative abilities to sell, produce and provide through entrepreneurship. We work with them to turn their why into a business idea and in so doing, use their abilities to create opportunity. The opportunity they perhaps previously didn't believe was achievable.

Not only do the offenders create business plans, they also take a step outside of their comfort zone. They practise, and then deliver, pitches to a panel of business leaders and senior prison officers. Doing this takes great courage, amplified by Fraser on this latest course. The sense of achievement this brings is tangible and the result is a person becomes an asset to themselves and others in not only the prison community, but the wider community on release.

We are proud of all the participants of the latest course and would like to thank Portland once again.

Sam Cload, Head of the 100 & First Foundation