Project: Reparation project
Mission: To help young people give something back
Funding: Each vehicle costs around £3,000 to repair, which comes from charitable donations.
Young offenders in Birmingham have been rebuilding vehicles to send to deprived communities in other countries.
The project is run by Birmingham's youth offending team (YOT) and sees young people working with trained mechanics to restore run-down vehicles donated to the scheme. The vehicles are then shipped abroad for use by Sightsavers International to deliver medical supplies and treatment to remote communities. Last month the project sent a vehicle to Sierra Leone after Land Rover agreed to fund the shipping costs. It was the fifth vehicle of its kind to be restored by young offenders from Birmingham since the project was set up in 2001.
YOT manager Jane Olner says the project gives young offenders aged 10-17 the chance to completely strip down and then rebuild and repair a vehicle to current MOT-certified standards. "Young people are gaining valuable practical skills and life skills such as communications and teamwork, as well as training towards future employment," she says. "And in Sierra Leone people are gaining vital access to medical care and rehabilitation."
Work on each vehicle takes approximately 18 to 24 months to complete, with around 200 young offenders taking part in the work each year. Most of the work is done in a special workshop, although some jobs such as spraying cannot be done by young people for health and safety reasons.
"It's a really positive project for young people who have so much negative publicity," Olner says. "The young people involved have really achieved something and work hard to produce a vehicle that will change lives."
