7^th July 08

18a Rossiter Avenue

Waterloo

Lower Hutt  5011

Kia ora koutou,

The events and pressures of the last two months, meant that I was personally unable to visit and say goodbye.  This letter, coming a week after the date of my retirement as National Director, is written, not just to say goodbye, but to comment briefly on what the future might look like for Prison Fellowship. 

About 18 months ago, I signaled to the Board of Prison Fellowship that we needed to look for a replacement – someone with a head of steam, a new vision, and a heart to make a difference.  It was not that I had run out of ideas, but that increasingly, I felt called to a new season in my life.  The social justice issues that have always been at the centre of my concern, become more pressing by the day, and I keep being reminded by others that it is time to “write my book”. 

Mine has been a rich and varied life – unlike most public servants of my era, I found it difficult to settle at one task.  I was at my most contented during times of change – and was sometimes guilty of imposing change without concern for the stressful impact on others.  Whether  it was in the Police, the Ombudsman’s Office, the State Services Commission, Maori Affairs the Department of Justice, of the Ministry of Health, change was what kept me alert and interested. 

My appetite for change was well sated in the eight years spent as National Director of  Prison Fellowship.  When I was appointed as National Director in 2000, we had $16,000 in the bank, and I was expected to raise my own salary.  Within four years, income exceeded $1.0m.  With the support of a highly competent Board, and the sacrifice and commitment of staff and volunteers, we made a strong initial impact on volunteer prison ministry, developed a suite of highly effective and innovative programmes and services for prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims and their families, and gained recognition as a significant influence in the criminal justice sector.  That effort resulted in Jackie Katounas and I jointly receiving the 2005 International Prize for Restorative Justice, and followed in 2007 by being made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order. 

Those years have been rewarding, but we have paid the price for our persistence.  It was frustrating to deliver programmes that year after year got the support of participants, funders and government agencies, yet failed to attract funding for their sustained provision.  It was progressively debilitating to witness other providers receive funding adequate to meet infrastructure as well as service costs, only to be told that our business case for funding had once again, been declined. 

It has become more and more difficult to raise funding from the private sector.  Many funders will not support programmes partly funded by government, and some (quite properly)  consider that if the programme is working well after the first 2 -3 years, then government should step up to the plate and pay for it.  Still others mistakenly believe that if government publicly supports the quality of the programme, they are probably paying for it.

The immediate challenge is to increase the amount of non-government funding to meet our ongoing costs and maintain the high quality of service provision for which we are known.   The next challenge is to persuade government to invest in prisoners’ programmes and services, rather than build more prisons. 

The fault is not with the Department of Corrections.  We have been blessed by the support we have received.  At this year’s Prison Fellowship Conference, Barry Matthews, Chief Executive of Corrections had this to say,

“Prison Fellowship NZ has seen a tremendous strengthening of the organisation and a significant growth in its influence.

 

One only has to look at this conference, which has grown over the last several years to become the single most significant criminal justice-oriented regular event of its type in this country.

 

It has become a ‘must attend’ for key sector advisors and participants, and it is becoming increasingly influential in influencing sector decision-making.

 

We are fortunate that Basil Wakelin has agreed to fill the vacancy for the next six months, as we search for a suitable replacement.  Basil is a Board member, and a very experienced manager.  He will serve us well.  

More and more, I have felt called to “speak out” on issues of crime and justice, and I will continue in that capacity as Project Leader of the Rethinking Crime and Punishment (RCP) project, initially in a voluntary capacity.  We have received strong support for the project from the judiciary, policy analysts, academics, criminal justice professionals, and those looking to consider in a rational way, the most effective means of addressing criminal justice issues.  The RCP Board of Reference has agreed to   establish the project under a Charitable Trust, and seek to expand its efforts over the next three years.  I will continue to manage a couple of small projects for Prison Fellowship.  My garden is waiting patiently for me to realise its potential, and I intend to become a serious student of jazz piano.   There is a theology degree awaiting completion, just in case I get bored.  

But most of all, I shall write and speak out on social justice and policy issues.  I have accepted an Associateship with the Institute for Policy Studies, Victoria University, and that will provide an opportunity to meet and work with a others from a range of disciplines and perspectives. 

In recent times, I   have become closely involved with the Taita/Pomare community and that has been an enriching experience.  I have rediscovered the pleasure of “stepping outside of ourselves” - that when we help the community, and get involved in it, the community embraces us.   When we fight for the rights of the last, the least and the lonely, we cease to be lonely, or lost, or intimidated.  That in service, we earn respect and dignity.   That while we are free to pursue our own dreams, it is only when we seek a higher purpose that we can truly exist.

If there is one thing I know, it is that this is not the time to sit on the sidelines and watch.  Martin Luther King talked about the “fierce urgency of now”.  The Anti-Asian demonstrations in South Auckland herald a new low in the nation’s race relations – and yet we live in a time when the “R” word is less acceptable than the “F” word.  We live in a time when the media daily pronounces the existence of a crime wave, and public events are staged which do nothing more than raise  the level of fear and insecurity within our communities.  When we value people who daily engage in the rhetoric of revenge and retribution, over the man or woman in the street who do daily whatever is required to address issues of poverty and family dysfunction, we have the makings of a sick society. 

I believe that a time will come soon, when the government will realise that there are thousands of New Zealanders out there who want to step up – who want to make a difference.   That instead of trying to run things itself, government will leverage that civil commitment to come to terms with national challenges.  That those with the capacity and the capability to contribute, will be given the resources to bridge the widening gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.   That our commitment to service will be directed toward those sections of our communities that are least developed. 

Governments do many things well, but social innovation isn’t one of them.  I look to the day when government will facilitate and resource citizens to develop their own service agenda - encouraging communities to make their own changes from the bottom up, at the same time releasing the expertise that lies within central and local government.   That the state stops telling the community what it should do, and instead empowers them to do it. 

There are those who yearn for the halcyon days of the 1950”s.  The days when we were unified in a national cause, still reeling from the impact of a World War, determined that this nation would be and think as one.  What existed then, and doesn’t exist now, was a spirit of unity.  There is only one way to renew that spirit – through service.  We need to understand that if our individual destinies are to be realised, they can only be realised through a collective spirit of service. 

It is only then that, as Martin Luther King once said, that “the arch of history is bent once more toward justice”  

I look forward to a few more years of bending the arch. 

God bless you all,

Kim Workman