WYCCP The Inside Story

West Yorkshire Community Chaplaincy: “The Inside Story”

Since 2005 the West Yorkshire Community Chaplaincy Project has been supporting ex-offenders along the path from HMP Leeds to a new, crime-free life in the community, and seeking to increase understanding of matters of ‘restorative justice’ amongst people of faith across West Yorkshire. With the combined efforts and expertise of four full-time and three part-time staff, plus a small army of trained and dedicated volunteers, WYCCP is able to walk alongside prison-leavers, offering them encouragement and guidance ‘through the gate’ as they embark on the maze of challenges and questions that await them on the outside…How can I find somewhere to live? What benefits can I claim? Where can I get help to escape my addictions? Who would employ someone like me? Why would anyone give me a second chance?... and helping the communities to which these ex-offenders may one day return wrestle with the implications of such questions for them and society at large.
WYCCP staff, volunteers, service users and partner support agencies recently celebrated the project’s fifth anniversary with a morning of story-telling and discussion.
The morning’s highlight was hearing from three of WYCCP’s volunteer ‘link workers’ and three of our indomitable service users stood up to the microphone to tell us of the journeys that had brought them to this point. Each spoke powerfully of obstacles overcome, prejudices refuted and challenges embraced, and were told with courage, feeling, and often with shaking hands.
For the sharp-eyed, a real sense of the project ‘coming of age’ was to be found in the fact that our group of three volunteers plus three service-users totalled only five! One of those speaking had approached WYCCP staff for support whilst still serving his sentence. Through determination and positive engagement with the project, D has transformed the direction of his life and has been the first, we hope of many, to progress into becoming an active volunteer ‘link worker’ with invaluable passion and insight into the experiences of those prison-leavers WYCCP seeks to support.
Below are extracts from the story of another service user’s speaking at the event:
“I used to be a drug addict. The longest time I spent out of prison was 4 weeks as I used to use between £200-£300 of heroin and amphetamine a day. The cocktail of drugs and medication I was taking led to me suffering from black outs and very bad mental health problems. I use to hear voices and hallucinate; sometimes I would even attack other people for no reason due to my state of mind.
It was the scariest time of my life and that was when I realised I needed to get some help.
At the time a police spokesperson told the local press I was responsible for 10% of burglaries in East Yorkshire, and my first step was to tell the police about some of my crimes. My second step was getting help to lead a drug free life.
I received 100% support from [WYCCP]. I have now been out of prison for 14 months and for the first time since I was 15 years of age I am not on probation or any form of licence.

If you would like any further information about WYCCP please go to www.wyccp.org.uk or contact the office: info@wyccp.org.uk, 0113 3874580, WYCCP c/o HMP Leeds, Gloucester Terrace, Leeds LS12 2TJ