Last week, the CCF team visited the Nehemiah Project, a Christian charity that works with ex-offenders recovering from drug, alcohol addictions and criminality.
Based in South London, the Nehemiah Project team have spent 20 years working in prisons and the community, running rehabilitation programmes and providing supported housing. They seek to give men who have a genuine desire to break their cycle of addiction, crime and imprisonment, a structured environment to make new and informed decisions about their future.
We spoke to their Chief Executive John Patience, who said Nehemiah stands out from other rehabilitation schemes by placing emphasis on the residents’ own initiative and motivation. ‘You have to take charge of your own life … We don’t solve their problems for them, we give them the right environment to make better choices by themselves.’ He explained to the CCF that the project’s mission is to build the confidence and self-esteem of residents, in order that they are aware of the good news in their lives, and recognise that they and their families can have a future free of addiction and crime.
During our visit to the Nehemiah Project, we were very struck by the warm and supportive family-like environment in the house. Over lunch we fellowshipped with staff and residents. We had the privilege of listening to a service user’s testimony of how the project has turned his life around: ‘Nehemiah helped me to get my relationships back, my confidence back, and helped me to respect people.’ He had been involved in theft and burglary for many years in his life, and after repeated imprisonment he recognised that he needed to break the cycle of crime. ‘I am learning a lot from people’s experience of how they avoid crime … And I find it helps me.’ When asked what he would like to do in the future – ‘I would like to go into mentoring to help people, but obviously I would need to sort myself out first … I am looking forward to moving onto the next stage of the rehabilitation programme and helping others.’
The Nehemiah Project’s valuable work in this field is exceeding the national average in many measures: The national average for remaining abstinent for a year is 30%; compared to the Nehemiah Project where 67% of residents remain abstinent. Nearly 50% of released prisoners reoffend within 12 months and for London prisons this figure increases to 60%. At Nehemiah, only 5% of the men they have worked with in the last five years have reoffended.
Read more about how the Nehemiah Project is impacting lives here.
We are inviting the Nehemiah Project, Langley House Trust, Prison Alpha and the Prisons and Probation Minister Andrew Selous MP, to speak at our Prayers for the Nations service and Westminster Briefing on Tuesday 1st of March.