Mosaic visit to Wormwood Scrubs
On Thursday 23rd April, a group of senior business leaders joined Mosaic on a Prince's Seeing is Believing visit to HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The visit was led by Iqbal Wahhab, Founder of Roast Restaurant and Mosaic Board member, with the aim of promoting Mosaic's Young Muslim Offenders Mentoring Programme, which will provide mentors to 16-25 year old offenders during the vulnerable period of transition from prison back to the community.
The visit forms part of The Prince's Seeing is Believing which is Business in the Community's flagship programme for engaging the UK's top business leaders with key social responsibility issues. The purpose of the programme is to increase awareness and understanding of social issues, showcase and increase the positive impact that business can make in the community and to demonstrate clear examples of how businesses can make a difference both within the community and within their business.
The delegation for the visit included representatives from Ernst & Young and Citicorp, as well Richard Barnes, The Deputy Mayor of London. With the morning starting at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, they were met by Governor Phil Taylor, and given a tour of the prison where they were able to meet staff and prisoners to get an understanding of what life is like in prison and some of the skills development work that is being run, before hearing from the prison Imam about the need for such a mentoring programme at the establishment.
For the second half of the visit, the delegation were driven to the Strand to hear from Rob Owen, CEO of St Giles Trust, about the work the Trust do through their peer advice programme and through the gates service. We also heard from Bain & Co. about their involvement as national partners on Business in the Community's Ready for Work scheme. Ready for Work is a business-led, work placement programme which provides training and work experience placements to socially excluded groups in order to help them gain and sustain employment. Bain & Co. spoke about their participation on the programme and how it had provided staff with a unique way to develop professionally. We heard from a number of beneficiaries who had managed to secure full-time employment as a result of successfully completing the programme.
Feedback from the event was that it was a well-organised and informative day which acted as an eye-opener to a number of issues facing offenders, both before incarceration and upon release. One delegate said,
"The work that BITC and Mosaic are doing in promoting business engagement in offering placements, longer term employment opportunities and mentors, is invaluable. I believe there is a real opportunity to convince many more employers to participate in this initiative".
Calls to Action:
@ HMP Wormwood Scrubs
- For suitable mentors & befrienders for work through the community chaplaincy
- For work experience placements pre or post-release (leading to permanent jobs where possible/appropriate)
- For funds to improve facilities for Muslim prisoners' practicing their faith.
@ Ready for Work
- Provision of two week work placements to young Muslim Offenders as part of the Ready for Work scheme (clients will have undergone 6mths of mentoring and 2days pre-employment training)
- Consider ex-offenders who have been through Ready for Work for any appropriate job-opportunities at your company
- Provide employee volunteers to train as Job-Coaches. Each Job-Coach is matched with a client who has successfully completed the Ready for Work Programme, helping them to progress into work and sustain that employment. Job-Coaches are required in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford.
@ Mosaic
- Encourage employees to become mentors for the different mentoring programmes run by Mosaic
- As part of employee volunteering initiatives, allow day release for employees to volunteer as mentors
- Join the Mosaic network and support our objectives to:
- Stimulate greater levels of volunteering;
- Nurture and promote talent in Muslim communities;
- Promote leadership and civic engagement.
Fore more information
Please contact Julian Yorke - julian.yorke@bitc.org.uk / 020 7566 8735