Case Study 32 brooks cOOKs up Ex-offender Brooks Abela has the right ingredients to support offen ders with me ntal hea HOPE lth issues May 2015 Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC 5th Floor, Oakland House, Talbot Road, Manchester, M16 0PQ 03000 479 000 [email protected] www.cgm-probation.org.uk Case Study 32 BROOKS COOKS UP hope BROOKS Abela has passed on his culinary skills as part of a project that aims to give offenders with mental health issues the recipe for success. He said: “HOPE’s helped me meet new people with similar kinds of problems to myself, so I feel comfortable talking about what I am going through. The activities have focused my mind.” The offenders are on the Help Outside the Prison Environment (HOPE) project, an initiative run by the Cheshire & Greater Manchester Community Rehabilitation Company and the Greater Manchester West NHS Trust. HOPE supports offenders, or people at risk of offending, who have mental health conditions. Megan Snape, CGM CRC health trainer, works for HOPE and helpes to organise the scheme. Participants also gain qualifications in food preparation and hygiene. The project teaches offenders new skills and encourages them to learn more about the art of healthy cooking. In addition, Brooks and his team laid on a silver service three course meal to paying punters that helped raise cash for the Mustard Tree, a homeless charity. Brooks, who has previously been on probation and himself benefited from HOPE’s services, said: “I was embarrassed about discussing mental health problems for most of my life, but HOPE helped me overcome that. “One of the best things for me was a baking course they ran. So I know the power that cooking can have. I think it brings out the best in people and is really therapeutic.” “The participants did great in the kitchen and we prepared some really mouth-watering dishes.” She said: “HOPE has proved that, given the right support, offenders with mental health conditions can make dramatic transformations. “When people have conditions like depression or paranoid schizophrenia, it is possible that they become socially isolated, and in some cases this can lead to people turning to crime. “To stop people from re-offending, tackling social isolation and providing activities that encourage things such as healthy cooking is effective.” HOPE, in Fairfield Street, Manchester, runs activities every week day and aims to break social isolation and host events that help improve participants’ health and wellbeing. The offenders ran their pop-up kitchen and restaurant at the Greater Manchester Fire Service training headquarters in central Manchester. One of the service users who benefited from the scheme was Dean. His probation officer referred him to HOPE in January, a month before he successfully completed his prison licence. “Cooking brin gs out the be st in people an d is really the rapeutic.” Brooks Abela .