Last week, staff from the Otesha Project UK began teaching Roots of Success to Inmates at London’s Wormwood Scrubs Prison. Tamsin Robertson and Hanna Thomas, Otesha’s Roots of Success instructors, spent the day in Wormwood Scrubs piloting the Fundamentals module with an enthusiastic group of inmates involved in the prison education program. Otesha received fantastic feedback from those who participated in the class, as well as from the prison education staff who observed. “The delivery was excellent, aimed at exactly the right level,” one prison education teacher observed, “all of [the men] were fully engaged, regardless of age or ability.” Students appreciated learning about “options for the future in the green economy” and getting help to “find work that’s considered ‘green’.” Both instructors really enjoyed the opportunity to offer fundamental environmental literacy training to people who may not have otherwise had an opportunity to engage with the material, and are looking forward to delivering more Roots of Success classes within England’s prisons!
Otesha Project UK is a youth-led organization that mobilizes young people to create social and environmental change at the local level, they also anchor the East London Green Jobs Alliance. They are incorporating the Roots of Success curriculum into their work with colleges, trade unions, local government, businesses, NGOs, and correctional facilities to create more opportunities for unemployed young people to enter green jobs.
Roots of Success for the UK is an empowering and comprehensive environmental literacy and job readiness curriculum that has been customized for use in the UK. The curriculum has been extensively revised for use with diverse populations living in the UK. If you are in the UK and interested in brining Roots of Success to your program, give us a call at +00 1 510 4700803 for more information (please be aware that England is 8 hours ahead of California.)