Making Communities Safer

Tackling crime through education, training and employment: An opportunity to hear about the innovative approach being taken by LRPT CONFERENCE EVENT AT The Y, Leicester YMCA, 7 East Street, Leicester. LE1 6EY. DATE: 10.00am - 1.30pm Friday, 15 March 2013
This conference event is being staged by the Howard League for Penal Reform and LRPT to further promote the work of the Probation Trusts specialist education and work support group - known as the LEAF Team. LEAF, which stands for Learning, Employment, Accommodation and Finance, won the Howard Leagues Education, Training and Employment Award in 2012. LRPT recognises that employment, financial inclusion and settled accommodation are key factors in achieving the key aim of reducing reoffending and protecting the public. Published by the Ministry of Justice, recent statistics show that for prisoners serving a sentence lasting 12 months or more, the one year re-offending rate was 5.6 percentage points lower for those who found employment than for the matched comparison group. Guest speaker at Fridays event will be Sir Clive Loader, Leicestershires Police and Crime Commissioner, Howard League Chief Executive Frances Crook, LRPT Director Carrie Peters. MORE FACTS ON LEAF LEAF is delivered on both a one-to-one basis and in groups. Case management is complemented by a range of support and provisions including: advice on writing a CV guidance on the rules governing disclosure of former convictions on-site education classes tuition on interview techniques opportunities to join mentored work placements and train as a peer mentor to act as a positive role model for other service users. In its winning submission to the Howard League, the LEAF Team was able to demonstrate that in the first quarter of 2012, LEAF worked with 31 offenders who either achieved paid employment or voluntary work. The aims of LEAF are to: engage and motivate individuals to overcome external and internal barriers that have prevented them from achieving their full potential provide service users with the help that they require to improve their chance of finding employment and settled accommodation change the circumstances that have contributed to their offending Work with the individual to promote their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. For further Information contact communications officer Fiona Buchanan on 07711 160685.