Mission Partner: The Nazareth Way
Over this past year the financial support we give to The Nazareth Way, has enabled the chaplaincy to care for those in prison. The main aim of TNW is to promote the mental and spiritual welfare for all those who are detained in HMP Send; to mentor, offering educational opportunities, assist with rehabilitation; and to relieve poverty by the giving of small grants. So what does The Nazareth Way do? – here are a few examples:
· The provision of additional resources like books, CDs, DVDs. This significantly benefits every day, but especially during times of occasional lockdowns. Also, additional materials such as colouring books, painting materials, craft/card making packs and wool for knitting.
· At Christmas and Easter all detainees are given a small gift bag containing a greetings card; confectionery and toiletries. At Christmas they receive a voucher for buying gifts.
· Sixty four small grants of £25 were made to prisoners who were in receipt of little or no financial support from outside the prison. These grants enabled them to purchase items such as clothes from the prison shop, stamps/phone credit, so they can maintain contact with their families and children.
· In addition, 9 women who had minimum or no outside financial support, were provided with a discharge grant of £100 on release. This supplements the grant (£46) provided by the prison service and buys essential food over the first few days back in the community.
· A limited number of women were provided with a basic mobile phone on release to enable them to keep in contact with Probation and outside support.
· The mentoring programme (Connections) offers a vital way to help offenders change their lives. A new training initiative is happening this autumn, to equip more mentors. If you feel you might like to train to be a mentor, please do get in touch with me and I can introduce you to the chaplaincy team at HMP Send.
The Nazareth Way is only possible thanks to the generosity of St Giles’ & St George’s and other supporters. However, they are finding that funds are lessening, so please pray that they may find more supporters, so that this important work that the chaplaincy are doing may continue.