Businesses urged to '˜take leap of faith' and give ex-offenders an opportunity

Mabs Hussain, chief superintendent of West Yorkshire Police, said the stability of employment can help transform the lives of ex-offenders.

Speaking at the Mosaic Yorkshire End of Year event, Mr Hussain urged businesses to take a “leap of faith” in offering opportunities to ex-offenders.

He said: “Where employers can really make a difference is giving opportunities to offenders.”

Mr Hussain added: “My plea and Mosaic’s plea to you employers in the room is take a leap of faith. Think how your organisation, how your company can take a leap of faith on that individual.”

Mosaic is a charity that helps provide mentoring to people from deprived communities. The chief superintendent is on Mosaic’s ex-offender advisory panel.

Mr Hussain said businesses have a “massive” role to play in providing a pathway in stopping young people offending.

“The normal approach from police in terms of arresting and convicting only has limited success,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

The force has realised over the years the importance of working with other agencies to look at offending behaviours, he said.

Mr Hussain added: “Business plays an extremely important role because actually the lack of employment is a massive reason for offenders to offend.

“If you’re in steady employment, you have a steady and stable household. A steady social environment. A steady family environment. They’re less likely to offend.”

The chief superintendent praised the work of Timpson, the shoe repair retailer, for its work with ex-offenders.

“Most of their shops are run by ex-offenders but that doesn’t stop them from putting soles on shoes,” said Mr Hussain.

As well as helping ex-offenders and steering people away from crime, Mosaic also called on businesses to help young people.

Sarah Khan-Bashir, chair of Mosaic in Yorkshire, said: “We really want more support from businesses in the region because if you look at the young people of today, they are our business community of tomorrow.

“We want businesses to get involved from a funding point of view, provide us with funding so that we can have more events to encourage more young people to be mentored and inspired, and also to supply us with mentors.”

Ms Khan-Bashir also asked businesses to allow industry visits to give students from deprived backgrounds a flavour of the world of work.

She said: “Part of our mentoring programme is that the school will set up a visit to the business. It could be a small business, it could be a big business.

“Smaller businesses can allow a group of students to come in, see how the business operates and give them first-hand experience.”

Mosaic’s end of year event was held at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds and celebrated the work of the charity’s volunteer mentors in the region.

The charity is now a part of The Prince’s Trust. Mosaic was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2007.

Tributes paid at event to the army of volunteer mentors

The end of year event paid tribute to volunteer mentors, who helped in a variety of ways.

Kelly Martin, from Leeds Building Society, was named mentor of the year.

Ms Martin helped mentor Swallow Hill Community College in Armley.

David Worthington, managing director of brand design agency 10 Associates, was highly commended along with Kamran Rashid.

Mr Worthington, who mentored children from Dixon Kings Academy in Bradford to the national final of the Mosaic Enterprise challenge, said he got involved because “every young person should be given an opportunity”.

Ms Khan-Bashir said: “Those are all voluntary mentors who have given up their time and they’re usually very, very busy people as well.”

Mosaic said 315 volunteers helped it make a difference to people’s lives.