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News from Walsall

Community Chaplaincy

The first Annual General Meeting of the Walsall Community Chaplaincy Project took place at Broadway United Reformed Church.

The Rev John Deakin was elected Chair and reported on progress so far:-

This project aims to reduce the cycle of re-offending in the borough of Walsall, through supporting ex-offenders on their release from prison, in their resettlement into the community. The people of the borough will benefit for the following reasons:

1. The level of crime will go down.

2. The perception of crime will go down.

3. The ex-offenders will be supported and helped to be valued members of the community.

To carry this out the project will employ a Community Chaplain to work alongside the ex-offender on their release from prison. The chaplain will help them to find accommodation, support with employment and with treatment for substance abuse. There are several Community Chaplaincies running successfully in Britain at the moment, bringing good results in preventing re-offending. The project will need considerable funding, from major funders; the initial budget is over £250000 for three years.

The project grew from an initiative developed at Churches Together in Bloxwich and Blakenall. The initial group of four people took legal advice and we decided to set up a company limited by guarantee. As most major funders will only fund a charity, we are seeking charity registration. Our policies, such as Health and Safety etc,  have been prepared, the business plan has been reviewed and amended.
Amidst all of this we have continued to establish links with HMP Birmingham, Swinfen Hall and Brinsford.

However the next major obstacle is charity registration and this is the area where we are concentrating our efforts at the moment.

So you can see that it has been a busy period for the project.
We are looking forward to the future when we will be employing our first Community Chaplain for the Walsall borough, whoever he or she may be.

Office Address:

18 Selman’s Hill 

Bloxwich 

Walsall 

West Midlands 

WS3 3RJ