Plumber Girl

This is from our one service users as part of our "Coming Home Cardiff" program, joining women, skills, housing and employment. Thanks to the lovely team at Mears for making this happen.
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This is the first blog I have ever written but here goes...

I am a female plumber who has spent the last year trying to get funding for my NVQ in plumbing. I got nowhere. Nevertheless I plodded on carrying out plumbing jobs in the hope that one day all my hard work would pay off. Well today, it finally did!

Under the guidance of 'Coming Home Cardiff' a meeting is arranged for me to meet members of the MEARS group and discuss my future. Me, a scruffy plumber with no business mind at all, going to a business meeting.

 Can you imagine? 

Wondering how I will fit in and whether I will crumble. I take my seat at the table.  I am totally at ease. Made to feel very welcome and comfortable and not at all out of place in my silicone covered polo shirt, trousers and work boots! I even begin to enjoy it and although I don't understand everything that is said, I manage to grasp most of it. Here is a company introduced by Kazuri, that understands me and what I need. Not only that, but they are willing to help me full the gaps in my NVQ portfolio and give me the opportunity to do my gas qualification and all the help I will need to start up. 

It's all I can do not to jump out of my seat and hug every person around the table. Not sure that would have gone down well.

I feel totally secure and like a child who was lost and has just been reunited with its mother. Yes everything is going to be ok now.

 The Mears team is behind me and understands what needs to be done and will get it done. As for 'Coming Home Cardiff', well this will be a new chapter in my life. What a team we can be.

Once I am qualified I will be able to work with the girls we support. It will be a new and enjoyable challenge for me and I'm so looking forward to being able to help others. I know how difficult it was for me to find a plumber willing to take me on. 

After phoning every local plumber I could find in the yellow pages and online I had almost given up. I decided to have one last attempt by contacting my local paper and asking them to run a story about the fact no man would take me seriously. Of course once I told the college of my intentions they pulled out all the stops and found me someone. I was very fortunate as I am the only one out of my class to actually finish the course and continue plumbing. It is very difficult to find plumbers willing to take on apprentices for various reasons. Some simply don't want the competition. Others think it is too risky.

I am  ready to help out women who have an interest in construction but for whatever reason, they have been unable to find the training. It's hard enough to enter this industry as a female so I have every respect for the women who have found themselves excluded from society, but willing to give construction a go. 

I feel honored to be a part of a scheme offering help and housing to women in need.

I have a new found confidence thanks to the whole team who has helped me get to where I am now. I am so excited about the future. I have the opportunity to work alongside plumbers and gain new experiences. I have funding to complete my NVQ which will enable me to obtain insurance. I have been offered help and support in registering my business, something I never considered. And, I can
obtain my health and safety certificate which is something I hadn't even thought about.

Needless to say, I am eternally grateful to all involved and I am so looking forward to working alongside a great team.

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Creating a service based on love and community. To serve.

Getting the Truth Out

Sometimes, a sea change takes place in the minds of the public, elected officials and media pundits. Long overdue, that seems to be underway now with regard to the American prison system and the war on drugs.

For decades, politicians competed to see who could be tougher on crime - who was more in favor of locking up the most people for the longest stretches - and the public and media, for the most part, cheered them on. Now even Attorney General Eric Holder has called mass incarceration a moral and economic failure. What happened?

Tireless activists, educators and authors happened: not least of them Michelle Alexander, whose hugely influential book The New Jim Crow was championed by Truthout. But I'm proud to say I believe that Truthout's own reporting also played a part in this shift.

From Victoria Law’s coverage of long-term solitary confinement in California, to the work Dina Rasor has done on prison privatization, to Maya Schenwar's deeply personal accounts of the cruel effects of imprisonment on human beings, we've treated this as an important issue for years.

please support Truth Out. Kicking against incarceration America Incorporated.

letter to your MP. Let's talk about Transforming Rehabilitation.

The Transforming Rehabilitation Bill will pass  through the House of Commons after October 8th. We are requesting parliamentary scrutiny on  how this will affect offenders on license in the community, particularly women.  Karl Turner MP for East Hull has applied for a Westminster Hall debate  and if more MPs apply, the speaker is likely to grant the debate. We created a template letter for you to send to your MP. To find out who your MP is please enter your post code on this link and their email details will come up in the search results.

  

http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

We are also writing to the Justice Committee today to urgently call an inquiry into Transforming Rehabilitation, when it is back from recess on October 8 2013.

Thank you for your continued support.

With best regards,

KAZURI MINDS TEAM

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template

FROM 

(your name)

Your full address inc post code

 12 September 2013

REF: Request for a debate, Transforming Rehabilitation

Dear  (Name of MP / AM) 

We write to ask you to apply for a Westminster Hall debate on women in the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice are next scheduled to answer on the 14th October and the 28th October. 

Karl Turner MP has applied for a debate on this issue, and if there is enough support from other MPs who care about issues of justice and rehabilitation, the chances of securing  such a debate are increased. 

The effects of privatising a very successful 100 year old probation trust have not been discussed on their merits, have never been piloted and indeed, the government is so scared of the  outcry should the  impending devastation be known they have refused to publish the risk register and the impact assessment. This is one of the projects being carefully reviewed by the Major Project Team, senior civil servants  and Chief probation officers have grave concerns as to the risk to public safety if these reforms to allow over 70% of all offenders to be released under the supervision of private for profit companies are allowed to proceed. 

The Secretary of State for Justice still wants to push ahead.  Our concerns are that the Transforming Rehabilitation bill does not take into account the very different needs of women, although HMG have proposed an amendment on the face on the bill. We don't consider it to be enough of a palliative or protection  against the drastic  effects upon women prisoners or those forced to take up services of the  newly  privatized probation service, as proposed. 

“Arrangements under subsection (5) shall make provision for the delivery of services for female offenders which take into account of the particular needs of women.”

There is no compulsion or mandatory requirement of the said providers, and questions arise as to whether this is enforceable in the law. What defines a requirement?

We do hope you will consider supporting this request for a debate.

 The Justice Committee’s  recent report, Women in the Criminal Justice System  claims NOMS and the Ministry of Justice consider women as an afterthought. Let’s put this firmly on the agenda and give women  who offend at least half a chance to reintegrate by ensuring that interventions are sensitive and gendered. 

Yours sincerely

(YOUR name)

Thank you to the Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, Michael Turner QC

MTQC has taken the threats of further legal aid cuts beyond chalk striped suits  and the rarefied meadows of Lincoln's Inn. His battle beyond the bar, which is all of our battle has been brought home  hard to the slow awakening of the wider public. 

While justice sleeps...

These  disastrous proposals will affect the most vulnerable people in our society. 

MTQC gives courage   to those who have none left and brings together the unlikeliest of factions to save justice. 

And for that we thank him and ask him to stay close, the wise old general, to keep a hawkish  eye on the troops, the biggest battle is still to come.

Thank you for all that you do. For today's Monday Message see

https://www.criminalbar.com/latest-updates/news/q/date/2013/08/26/monday-message-26-08-13/

do you know an inspiring woman who works in housing?

Nominate her here!


Women in Housing Awards 2013

The inaugural Women in Housing Awards will celebrate and recognise the achievements of female professionals from all disciplines, working within the Housing sector across the UK.

The ethos of the awards and its specific aims are to:

Celebrate women’s achievements in the Housing sector

Promote the innovative contribution of women

Encourage women to work and flourish in the housing sector

Network with like-minded peopleBreak down the barriers

The awards have already garnered signficant support and endorsement from leading national housing industry organisations and professional bodies including the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH); the social housing sector’s leading provider of performance improvement services, HouseMark; TPAS, the largest tenant-led organisation in Europe; and WISH, the national business networking group for women in both the public and private housing sectors.

The awards, of which there are nine in total, will be open to women and organisations in the housing sector from across the UK.

Timeline

May 2013 – September 6th 2013 – awards open for entries

September 2013 – Shortlist announced

November 6th - Inaugural Women In Housing Awards ceremony, Hilton Hotel, Manchester

click here to nominate any fab femmes you think deserves this award

http://www.womeninhousingawards.co.uk/

building a new world

From the Nurture Development website which you must explore at your leisure http://nurturedevelopment.org/

NURTURE DEVELOPMENT HAS DEVELOPED A UNIQUE APPROACH TO BUILDING STRONGER COMMUNITIES THAT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED THROUGHOUT EUROPE AND IN AFRICA.

“Cormac Russell and Nurture Development have made Asset Based Community Development come alive in Ireland as a basic community building strategy.”

John McKnight, ABCD Institute

12 DOMAINS


There are at least 12 domains that are uniquely within the competencies of people and by implication, cannot happen without People Powered Change.

Our well-being is decisively more determined by our community assets than by any other health and well being determinants. Tragically community building hardly features as a priority in the current sickness model. And so, for example, older people are dying of loneliness in a sea of neighbourliness that does not know how to express itself.While it is true to say we are creeping towards a change in focus in this regard, it is also economically and ethically a pivotal time where the need to accelerate this portion of the public health agenda and to elevate the status and the function of ‘connected communities’ as agents of health production, has become all at once both critical and possible.

Everyone’s health and well being depends on this fundamental shift; this shift depends on everyone choosing to co-create a shared health seeking future. The same can be said for raising connected children, caring for our environment, sustaining our local economies, and promoting more inclusive societies.

Health and Wellbeing

Our health and wellbeing is mainly determined by the extent to which we are positively connected to each other, our environment and local economic opportunities.

Safety and Security

Increased police presence does not lead to enhanced safety and security in the same way that a connected community can.

Caring for the Environment

Imagine what is possible if people become more intentional and collective about their decisions around transport, heating and lighting their homes and how they manage their waste.

Nurturing the Local Economy

Most enterprises start small and local, in garden sheds, attics and at the kitchen table and in return they become the heart blood of local economies and one of the most reliable sources of employment for many communities.

Mindful Food consumption and Production

Local food chains enhance outcomes in the areas of health, environment and local economic well being.

Raising Powerful Connected Children

Children need to believe in their families and community. Children do not grow powerful in institutions; their power grows the closer they are to the centre of family and community life.

Ageing Well in Place/Locale

The type of care required to age well across the life course is the kind that sees both the gifts and needs of older people, in that order . This kind of care is only located among communities who have a central place for older people.

Building Communities

Communities grow from inside out, evolving from the place where ‘I’ live, to the community where ‘we’ grow. They can only grow through the deepening of human relationships.

Civic Action for Deeper Democracy & Just Society

Civic action for social, environmental and economic justice provides the rudder for keeping governments honest and on track, democracy meaningful, and people engaged in civic life.

Respond to Natural Disaster/Climate Control

No where is people power more apparent than in the face of natural disasters and the consequences of climate change; ashuman beings, when pu t to the pin of our collar we dig deep, pull together (self organise), and respond by building community.

Lifelong Learning and Sharing Wisdom

Knowledge and wisdom are hatched in the nest of everyday life a nd more particularly in associational life, not in educational, commercial or professional institutions.

Changing the World

"Change doesn’t happen because of how we invest our money . Change happens because of how we invest our human energy, and it always has since we came down from the trees." Daniel Taylor–Future Generations

Kazuri shortlisted for Centre for Social Justice Awards

"The annual CSJ Awards programme recognizes effective poverty fighting groups from across the UK. Cash prizes of £10,000 are awarded to charities, small voluntary groups and other local projects that display innovation and effectiveness in addressing the root causes of poverty, turning lives around and reversing social breakdown."

Kazuri is delighted to be one of only 18 organisations picked from  over 200 entrants  from  across the UK to have been shortlisted for this year's prestigious awards, to be announced in September. We have invited the CSJ panel to come and see our women's resilience center in Whitechapel and also the construction workshop for vulnerable women and ex offenders , our Coming Home, Cardiff project.

Stefan Bobolecki, Director of Regeneration and Planning says "I am pleased to see all Kazuri's hard work is being recognized through being shortlisted for this prestigious award by the UK's leading think-tank."  

Peter Cobrin, Director of Innovation and Skills says, "It's great to see innovation and imagination in this most complex of sectors being recognized." 

Farah Damji, founder of Kazuri Properties CiC says, "Thank you to all people who have been part of Kazuri. Someone clever told me when I started this three and a half years ago that  this venture  would be like taking a train to Glasgow - some people would stay for the duration and others would be  there for part of the journey and get off at Edinburgh. All I can say is  to  everyone who has had anything to do with Kazuri since its inception is I'm grateful to have shared part of the journey with you and thank you. Even being shortlisted is an honor."  

We look forward to welcoming CSJ  staff at our projects in London and  Cardiff. 

The Kazuri ethos that sustainable housing and resilience are at the core of a stable lifestyle  leads to cohesive communities and are aligned with the Center for Social Justice's  own values of empowerment, redemption and creating a better society.