Church Related Community Worker; Ann Honey highlights some of the work that goes on behind the scenes in the Billingham CRCW project and reveals how conversations between organisations can lead to some important collaborative work.
Recently we have developed a contact with NePACS, a charity in the north-east offering support to those affected by the criminal justice system. They provide prisoners and their families much needed advice and support through difficult times.
Last winter we heard they were in need of winter coats, as many of the prisoners being released had no warm coat to wear in what was a very cold winter. We managed to gather some from our congregation and community volunteers, and they were taken across to the centre outside the prison.
The manager of the local NePACS came to see me at St Columba’s for coffee and a chat, and to say how grateful they were for the donation of coats. They were interested to hear about the CRCW project in Billingham and thought there were ways we could work together. As we talked, I was able to tell her about a couple of small grants the charity might apply for – and they were successful in securing some money to buy essentials for the prison leavers.
A couple of weeks ago she asked whether we had anyone connected to the church who might be interested in knitting teddy bears. I told her yes; we’d probably be able to find some knitters (and in the back of my mind I was thinking of the stash of spare wool I have gathered over the years that “might come in useful one day”!) NePACS gives teddies to the children of prisoners on their “Family Days”, they also do something quite touching with them that I hadn’t thought of: Some of the men inside have new babies waiting for their release – some of them have never met their baby. They are given a knitted teddy to keep with them for a day or two – these teddies are then given to the new baby, so that when their parent is released, the child will recognise their parent’s smell. We’ve found a pattern (I think it’s a WI one) and our craft group is hoping to have some ready soon.