A trainee serving a meal in the Handcrafted kitchen

Kelly’s Story

A Multi-Agency Approach

Many of the people we work with are engaging with multiple different services so we use a multi-agency approach to plan our support. In many cases, it is our community support and activities, alongside our approach of empowering people which is valuable in this joined-up working.

Kelly has a range of complex mental health needs. She firstly engaged through our workshops as she was socially isolated, but we provided her housing as she was about to be made homeless. She has complex mental health needs and is closely supported by a Care Co-ordinator and Psychologist.

Kelly has also suffered a significant physical injury, and we were able to adapt our support to her, in co-ordinating her recovery and rehabilitation in hospital and later with physiotherapists. We have thus been able to support her back into employment as a delivery driver.

Testimonials

I have referred a number of offenders to Handcrafted. The offenders can attend the project several times per week if they wish to, if not daily. This means that they have some where to go and something constructive to do with their time. They can learn new skills or continue to develop skills they already have. They are given the opportunity to try projects they would probably never have considered themselves able to do.

They all take great pride in the items they produce and some have expressed interest in forming their own small businesses on the back of the skills they have learned.

Most of my offenders have then begun to work on their own projects outside of Handcrafted, for example, one produced a bench for a new nature reserve. The offender stated that he feels he has left a legacy for other people to benefit from. Again, this gives them something constructive to do with their time, gives them a sense of pride and self worth. All of this is extremely positive for the offender and helps to deter from further offending.

Lesley G, Durham Constabulary