To reduce the rate of re-offending through gaining professional skills and placement into work along with continued support with mentors. We also aim to change the public perception of offenders by giving them the chance to be cooked for and served by them in our restaurants.
The level of re-offending in the UK in the 1st year of release is currently over 70%, our scheme has managed to reduce this rate for our graduates to less than 10% so far and we aim to roll out the project to other prisons in the UK to enable us to reach out to many more offenders. One of the issues faced by ex-offenders is finding work, accommodation and opening a bank account
We train the inmates to become professional chefs and front of house staff. We train them via the NVQ route up to assessor level. We then find them jobs in the hospitality industry and provide them with 6 months of mentoring with an option for another 6 months if required. This makes a huge difference to the level of support they will normally receive and the reason our graduates don't re-offend. We hope to open up another 2 restaurants in prisons every year for 5 years to reach more people.