Since 2011, Growing Change has been changing the lives of young men at risk on the fringes of society. The innovative project takes old abandoned prison grounds and transfers them into farming and education centres, giving an opportunity to those who would possibly otherwise be drawn to a life of drugs and crime.
Founded by Noran Sanford, the project works particularly with youngsters who have been sentenced to community service orders, giving them a worthwhile focus for their restorative work and building longer term contacts and work experience that can benefit them going forward.
As Sanford explained:
"North Carolina is one of the last two states in which youth are adjudicated as adults for all charges at age 16. By the time some 16 year-olds arrive in the courts they are permanently limited in their employment due to their 'adult' criminal record."
The programs teach hard-work, discipline and key skills, as well as creating links with positive role models that can take the place of those on the street guiding them down the wrong path.
Since 2016, the Wagram Farm in North Carolina, has also been accepting young people into the program who have not become involved in crime but who are facing other vulnerable situations, such as homelessness and family breakdown. Indeed, Scotland County, where the project is based, is one of the poorest counties in all of North Carolina and has an unemployment rate well above average.
The project certainly seems to be working. Since the project began it has achieved a 92% reduction among participants in reoffending, compared to a national average of 43%.
The founder describes how the project is not simply a matter of getting people to work hard, but a program that offers hope, when their reserves of hope are often in short supply. He added:
"At the core level, we are instilling hope. When hope is gone, it creates a pretty vicious void that a lot of other grimmer things can get pulled into. And as low-wealth rural America is left further behind, then that vacuum is stronger. We're breaking that stream."
The farm produce also goes a long way to financing the project and is sold to local restaurants and stores, providing not only an income but a source of employment for the disadvantaged community.
While the United States has more people imprisoned than any other developed country, the number of prisoners is, in fact, reducing somewhat, leaving the opportunity for the team to flip other prisons, soon to be disused, into similar projects.
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