PRISON DADS LINE UP TO SPEAK FROM THE HEART
By Lauren Baldridge – Spurgeons childrens charity – read more
In the first of a Spurgeons summer blog series focused on the importance of dads and positive role models to children’s development, Spurgeons PR Manager Jeremy Waterfield previews Father’s Day (16 June) by reflecting on a memorable recent visit to one of our prison family support services… as it urgently seeks funding to continue its transformational work.
It’s human nature. No-one likes to admit they got things wrong. So it takes some bottle to hold your hand up and admit that, actually, you’ve made mistakes. But imagine admitting your whole life had been wrong. Not only that but being honest enough to stand in front of a large room of strangers and say so.
A dad admitted how, having brought up his children to see the police as the enemy, went on to tell them that, actually:
“It was my fault I went to prison – the police are the good guys.”
Another told us how he could demonstrate his commitment to a new start through his continued involvement in parenting courses, how he’d fully embraced his parental responsibilities to win custody of his children faced with an unsuitable home environment following a break-up with his partner. All thanks to the support of the Spurgeons team at Invisible Walls.
Please see HACRO’s Getting Ex-offenders into Work.