Chopping kindling cuts wood

It’s really good when an offender on a community work sentence starts turning his life around. For Craig* it only took one week of chopping kindling at Cargill Enterprises in Dunedin to do that.

Cargill Enterprises’ main goal is to give people with mental and intellectual disabilities the chance to gain some good working skills so they can find a regular job. It employs about 120 people in seven areas such as preparing firewood, joinery and making healthy lunches for schools.

Community Work Supervisor Gordon Broome says that the special work environment requires a certain character. “Craig just fitted right in, he has the perfect personality to work with our clientele! And not only that. Because of his technical background he invented helpful things. For example, he developed a device to keep people safe while chopping wood. So pretty soon he was out of the kindling and moved on to help them with engineering issues.

Cargill Enterprises Operations Manager Shayne Perkins says that Craig did his community work sentence with them “at the right time, in the right place”. And he was the right person. “He treated the people who work here with respect and he taught them many useful workskills. On top of that we had just closed down our engineering division but we still needed help in that area. So we decided to ask Craig if he wanted to help us with those engineering issues for the remainder of his community work sentence.”

Shayne is quick to point out that he has had quite a few good experiences with offenders on community work sentences. “It’s beneficial for us to work together with Corrections as we do not have a lot of money. And because of the people who work here, it’s a special place for offenders to work in too. People with disabilities can really open your eyes and provide an inspiring and sometimes life-changing environment.”

Gordon says that it’s always great to get a good fit between an offender and a certain sentence. “What made this extra special is that Craig has found the environment so inspiring that he is going to do an engineering degree at Polytechnic. It’s a great start to turning his life around and it reminds us at Community Probation Services of why we do the work we do.”

* not his real name