Unique Wairarapa REAP scheme feted

FRESH HOPE: Wairarapa REAP Director Peter McNeur with the community partnership award presented by Corrections Deputy Chief Executive Christine Stevenson for a partnered course aimed at helping convicted offenders with education and employment. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

WAIRARAPA Rural Education Activities Programme is celebrating the graduation of 100 convicted offenders who won "fresh hope for the future" through a unique learning programme.

The 100th graduate was handed a certificate recognising their achievement yesterday, during a week in which the Masterton-based education agency was recognised for its work in the Corrections-partnered programme, which since 2013 had been helping community-based offenders improve their education and job prospects.

Corrections deputy chief executive Christine Stevenson on Tuesday presented Wairarapa REAP director Peter McNeur with a community work partnership award for running the five-week living skills, literacy and numeracy courses.

Mr McNeur said Wairarapa REAP was the only partner agency in the country that was running the programme which, in other centres, was being conducted by Corrections alone.

He said Masterton Community Corrections and Wairarapa REAP tutors had been key to the success of the programme, which was available to offenders completing a community-based sentence of 80 hours or more, comprising up to 20 per cent of their sentence. "It's been a real partnership between us and the local Corrections people, who have been fantastic. Without them or our staff who have been doing the presentation of the programme, we simply couldn't have done this."

"The programme is in our long-term plans even though we're working at a loss, and happily really," he said.

"We certainly have seen people take fresh hope for the future and a significant number of the graduates have gone on to work, which we never set out to do. We just set out to help them with things they didn't do well.

"I have to say we don't make the changes, we just provide the right opportunities. People change their own lives and make that step up themselves despite some parts of our community that seem not to want to give anybody a break ever.

"But as far as we're concerned, and these people have children, they have families; there is no last chance."

The programme focuses on embedded literacy and numeracy skills through everyday activities and tasks that include communication skills and budgeting, he said.

The revised aim of the course today was to enhance participants' readiness for work, or help them progress into further education.

Participants by graduation have prepared their own CV, developed skills for job interviews and are ready for job hunting or further education.

Wairarapa REAP programme facilitator Kylie Brady uses a flexible teaching approach that recognises participants' needs and experiences. "Skills like budgeting are already being used, and we're seeing small steps forward with participants adjusting their mindset, growing in confidence and recognising that there is an alternative future out there for them."

Corrections Service Manager Mel Morris said the award recognised the contribution made to community-based offenders' lives. "Wairarapa REAP has done a tremendous job in providing offenders with the tools that could turn their lives around."