“I’ve been on and off [heroin] for about 20 years. It’s affected my physical health a lot … well it did, not now. Well taking heroin after all these years, you get used to heroin, so you’ve got to take it. It’s not something what you can take and just stop, you get … what … More George (2024) says: “I like it here because you do good things and good things come to you.”
“My probation officer asked me like how she can help me to get myself into a better place coz I was on a bit of a downward slide with things, I guess, which is why, you know, I got into trouble. That’s one of the reasons I got into trouble in the first place and … More T-Bunny says: “LandWorks is helping me to become me again and I really do feel like I’m stepping back into my own body and soul…”
“I was talking to my probation officer one day and I weren’t in the best of moods. He was asking me about what’s the matter and stuff like that, so I explained to him I’m just bored all the time and I just had too much time on my hands because I just didn’t do … More KJ says: “It always makes me really happy when everyone likes the food…”
This is a section from a transcript of a focus group carried out during the Inside Knowledge module run by the University of Plymouth at LandWorks in March 2024… Julie – What do you think are the key benefits of the enterprises at LandWorks? John – Oh, the list is so long … building self-worth, … More John says: “…as much as they might be learning from you, you’re learning from people all the time, you’re receiving it back…”
“…my probation officer, she was asking me to start coming for like a good six to eight months before I actually did, yeah, because I never used to really go out anywhere or do anything and I didn’t like going anywhere, so yeah, she kept saying that I’d really enjoy it and it would be … More Amelia says: “It’s given me routine, structure, discipline and like friends…”
“I’ve done quite a lot of stuff here like. It made me feel a lot more like … it changed my way of life … there’s more to life and that. It makes you feel more like part of the community and makes me want to be able to do something with my life. Before … More JimBob says: ”this place taught me to be truthful and to say how it is…”
“So, I studied at the University of Plymouth, where I did sociology for three years and within that three years, I did a placement at LandWorks. So, I volunteered here pretty much every Thursday until lockdown got introduced. So yeah, I came out here every Thursday. I remember like my first impressions. Oh gosh, I’ve … More Rose says: “I like seeing the little changes in people…”
“… I don’t have a house at the moment. I am living with friends and moving around. I mean I guess for me it’s a choice right now, so it feels like it’s ok. I was really struggling living in London with the whole like …busyness, the rent, the monotony, just hundreds and hundreds of … More Mabel says: “it’s really important to see that you can do something in one place in a community and it has huge ripples…”
“I come to LandWorks obviously through my probation officer. So, I came out of jail and he asked me if I wanted to go and at the start I was like I don’t really … do you know what I mean? I don’t really like travelling, going places, but he took me out here for … More Benjy says: “It’s like a family thing. It’s good. It’s decent like…”
“My YOT worker brought me out here the first time. I thought it would be a bit more boring to be fair. I thought it would be a lot more boring than what it is. That’s the positive side of it. It’s a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, which … More Greg says: “We all make mistakes, and we all learn from them eventually. Some learn a bit quicker than others, but we all learn from them.”
A window into LandWorks 