Stories from Europe

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Update from PF Germany

In September, PF Germany celebrated the 8th anniversary for its Seehaus Leonberg programme for young offenders aged 14 to 23. Close to 1000 people attended the “Day of the Offender 2011” event with representatives from both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches speaking. Other speakers included the previous and current Justice Ministers of Baden Wurttemberg state, the Mayor of Leonberg and a national television presenter.

Alternatives for juveniles in Bulgaria

Recently I provided restorative conferencing training for Prison Fellowship Bulgaria (PF Bulgaria) and several of its partner agencies. The twenty participants represented different public and non-governmental organisations including the Department for Child Protection, the Anti-bullying Commission of Vratsa, the Cultural Centre of Vratsa, the Probation Department, Caritas- Ruse and PF Bulgaria.

Sycamore Tree Project® launched in Germany

In June 2011, PF Germany ran its first Sycamore Tree Project® (STP) in its juvenile offender programme in Seehaus Leonberg.

Following an STP facilitator in England and Wales

Penny Parker began working with the Sycamore Tree Project®in a large London Prison about six years ago. In late February, she began a blog describing her experiences facilitating the Sycamore Tree course. Each article offers a glimpse into the programme sessions as run by PF England and Wales.

STP participants get chance to help the community

A new initiative in Scotland’s Addiewell prison will provide prisoners completing the Sycamore Tree Project®(STP) an opportunity to serve the community. The Timebank allows community members to “deposit” time credits through providing a practical service to others. They can then “withdraw” services from the bank at a later date. The partnership with Addiewell prison will allow prisoners to deposit credits into the Timebank by forgoing payment for one session of education or work each month.

Sycamore Tree Project® relaunched in Northern Ireland

After years of prayer and working with the Prison Service, PF Northern Ireland relaunched the Sycamore Tree Project®in Magilligan Prison. This first course to run in the country since 2008 served six men with four of them receiving certificates from the Open College Network for their participation. According to facilitator Joe Cassells – a first time prison volunteer – the course had an obvious impact on the participants’ attitudes with “sullenness turned to seriousness and cynicism to engagement.”

Awesome things happen when people come together

Recently, I met with representatives from Prison Fellowship Italy (PF Italy) visiting the Washington, DC area. In early 2010, a colleague and I had visited Italy to train members of the new organisation in the Sycamore Tree Project® so I was really looking forward to hearing about their experiences and the lessons learned. I wasn’t prepared for the awe inspiring stories that they told.

Using Sycamore Tree to Build Partnerships for Reintegration in Hungary

At the request of a friend, Vidia Negrea attended the final session of a Sycamore Tree Project® session run by PF Hungary. During the session, the participants talked about their experiences in the programme including the apology letters the prisoners had written to their direct victims. Listening to the stories, the restorative justice practitioner thought she could help the prisoners take more steps toward repairing harm by delivering the letters to the direct victims.

Sycamore Tree Project® Launched in Italy

On Saturday, 6 November, members of the recently chartered PF Italy facilitated their first Sycamore Tree Project® (STP) session in Milan’s Opera Prison.

Volunteers even more important in bid to reduce re-offending in prisons

From the announcement on the PF England and Wales website: More volunteers are being recruited to help run Prison Fellowship’s restorative justice programme Sycamore Tree as work in prisons becomes even more reliant on trained volunteers.