Displaying items by tag: turning lives around

Women who have had a brush with the law are turning their lives around by making luxury handmade chocolates at a community interest company called Positive Changes. People with criminal records face barriers to employment - no qualifications, low self-esteem. Grace Chocolates, based in a church hall, is breaking their cycle of re-offending by giving them a job. In twelve months, six volunteers working with women one day a week made 19,000 chocolate truffles. Mary, an ex-drug user, said, ‘I was put on a court order and got involved with Positive Changes. It’s more than just a chocolate-making company. Words cannot easily describe how my life has been turned round 360o. When I started the course I was quiet and withdrawn. But my self-esteem and self-confidence is now sky-high by comparison. Rev Dan Harper said, ‘Positive Changes is freeing ladies to grow into the people that God made: wonderful, worthwhile people capable of love, compassion and hope.’