LandWorks, the pioneering resettlement scheme at Dartington welcomed over 150 volunteers, and partners to its annual Supporters Day on Friday August 15 to celebrate another remarkable year of achievement.

The sun shone on the Quarry Field site as guests, including Head of Devon and Torbay Probation Delivery Louise Arscott and South Devon MP Caroline Voaden, enjoyed the opportunity to explore the project’s recently extended carpentry workshop, market garden, pottery and health and wellbeing yurt, and to meet and chat with the LandWorks team, trainees and graduates.

Over £2,600 was raised for the charity through sales of LandWorks’ wooden and ceramic gifts, garden furniture and freshly grown vegetables, and donations towards the tea and cakes that were provided by the LandWorks team and volunteers.

Chopping and cheese boards in a variety of styles and grains were in high demand, as were copies of LandWorks’ newly published recipe book, The Big Thank You.

Since LandWorks opened its doors in July 2013, it has helped over 250 people leaving prison, or at risk of going to prison, to find a route back into the community and employment through a combination of vocational skills training, practical living support, and counselling.

Some 94 per cent of former trainees seeking employment are in work, and fewer than 6 per cent go on to reoffend within a year.

In his welcoming speech, Project Director Chris Parsons shared a message he had received that morning from Eric, one of the first Trainees to attend LandWorks in 2013 who has been clean and out of trouble for 12 years and remains in contact with the charity.

Eric said: “If it wasn’t for LandWorks my life would be jail…LandWorks is still doing its magic.”

Former Trainee and now LandWorks Workshop Manager Graham Stone went on to provide a moving and powerful testimony to the positive effect LandWorks has had on his own life. Arriving as a trainee on day release from the local prison in 2015, Graham said “I found something I hadn’t experienced in years.

“A place that treated me like a person.

“LandWorks was the first professional service in four and a half years to ask me how I was and what they could do to help. That really stuck with me, and I started believing there may be a future after prison….

“Even now, ten years on, I still feel supported.

“That matters more than people realise, to know you’ve got someone who sees your potential and wants you to succeed.”

Reflecting on the prison crowding crisis and LandWorks’ achievements in her supporter’s day address, Louise Arscott said: “We need to keep on supporting places and partnerships like LandWorks that can evidence how they support people to recover and live positive lives.

In his last Supporters Day as Chairman of LandWorks Board of Trustees (charity rules limit the term to ten years), Ted Tuppen CBE said: “I have met and admired some extraordinary trainees and graduates over the past 12 years, people who, despite setbacks, are determined to change.

“It was one of those people who said, ‘Thank you LandWorks, you have helped me to become the person I want to be’.”