Wingspan Community Works (WCW) is a not for ‘net’ profit Social Enterprise subsidiary which has been operating since January 2010.

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The organisations’ purpose is the provision of ‘hope and opportunity through employment’ for those repeatedly excluded from employment as a result of their past mistakes or record. Ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed (often one in the same) are given a chance to work and show the wider world of work that they ‘can’hold down employment and that they do not always ‘blow’ the second chances they’re given. That the cycle of reoffending and or shedding of social stigma associated with long-term joblessness ‘can’ be broken and so lead to futures that no longer depend on crime or and benefits.

Wingspan’s business model is innovative, adopting a wholly commercial business model with the addition of mentoring and life-skills training. They provide ‘real jobs’, ‘real work’, with ‘real wages’ and in a ‘real company’ doing Grounds Maintenance, Minor Building, Painting and Decorating and Cleaning. To their target markets they ask to be treated ‘as a contractor’, but a contractor who, seeks out payment for works whilst simultaneously helping clients across Essex to deliver on Corporate Social Responsibility agendas.

At the heart of the enterprise is huge potential for contributing to positive and lasting social change through reductions in the costs associated with criminal justice, unemployment, benefits and re-offending. Above all though, it brings real hope to the lives of a number of individuals who have been denied opportunity because of their past mistakes or the lack of a continuous employment record.

Wingspan’s Objects specifically look to address these obvious needs and talks about “providing, promoting, supporting or organising the recruitment, employment, education, training and mentoring of offenders, ex-offenders, those at risk of offending and the long-term unemployed” and so they have set in place:

• An extensive partner network
• Direct partner referral process
• Paid employment
• An Employer Employee social contract – participants work conscientiously for the Company and the Company undertake to make them more employable when they move on than when they first joined
• Optional one-to-one mentoring [independent]
• Life skills training [around employability skills]

The company started operations in April 2010 doing Grounds Maintenance [gardening] but has since replicated the business format into Minor Building Maintenance, Painting & Decorating and Cleaning. The delivery model and target markets of the company are as follows:

Communications
From an early stage Wingspan thought it essential to network with interested or connected groups. The multi agency partnerships were put in place with groups such as the Safer Partnerships, County and Town/Borough Councils and staff referrals come from key partners such as Chelmsford Prison, the Bridge Project, the Probation Trust, JobCentre Plus, CHESS homelessness project, NACRO, Westminster Drugs Project and Open Road.

Impact

• 12 people employed to-March 2011
• Education, training and employment addressed from the 7 pathways
• A significant employer engagement partnership established with HMP and The Bridge Project
• A significant client established in Chelmer Housing Partnership
• In a full year, where no re-offending occurs through participants, the cost savings to the justice system and public purse is £855,554 (£11b / 90,000 releases’ x 7 ex offenders). Original data source; Social Exclusion Unit report and National Audit Office 2010 announcement

Outcomes
In December 2009 Wingspan were on BBC Radio Essex talking about what they were ‘going to do’, in December 2010 they could point to what the model ‘had done’ having been proven as the workers and a leaver had not reoffended and the leaver had even gone on to a better paid job (30%+) and 3-4yrs specialist training as a tree surgeon. The leaver has been in contact since to say “thank you” to Wingspan for the job opportunity and for restoring his confidence in work and in life. Partnerships across the community and the business model really do work!

Finally, the text within the company’s logo “Working on a Dream”, the dream is that an employer somewhere will give participants a second chance, a chance to work, to earn an honest living, to once again contribute positively to society, to again be accepted and ‘normal’ even, forgiven. The net result is the breaking of the cycle of reoffending and the shedding of social stigma associated with long-term joblessness.