Upon Steve’s most recent time in prison, he became part of the Recycling Lives workshop. As part of the workshop, Steve was able to get hands on with projects, learn new skills, as well as building new and trusted friendships. He was able to gain the guidance and confidence he needed to make positive changes in his life, all the while saving a pot of income to help him on his way when his sentence finished.

Steve continued with Recycling Lives as part of their residential programme, enabling him to work on the issues that caused him to reoffend previously. He now has a stable job at United Utilities and is continuing to progress his career.

As for his family life, his mum said ‘I’ve got my son back’ as he firmly settles back in as a loved son, brother and father. Steve is happy, healthy and has completely turned his life around.

About Recycling Lives Charity & Social Enterprise
Recycling Lives Charity is redefining what social value can look like as a UK leader for combining business and charity. They deliver charity programmes for offender rehabilitation, residential support and more.

Throughout the pandemic, they were able to reduce reoffending rates to under 5% and support over 150 people back into work, contributing to creating social value of £22.3million.

Its work is supported by Recycling Lives Ltd, who use their commercial operations in recycling and waste management to create training and work opportunities for Charity participants.

How Capacity helped
Capacity has been able to work closely with Recycling Lives over the past five years, supporting with various projects, including a plan for growth to expand their prison-based workshops.

From business planning to finance management and bid-writing, Capacity was able to help Recycling Lives Charity to secure £600k of Big Lottery Funding for their growth plans. 

The 600k has now allowed Recycling Lives to grow their services across the UK as positively change more lives than ever before.