Home Programs Corrections About Canada’s correctional system Giving back to the community

Giving back to the community

Many offenders consider prison sentences as a chance to turn their lives around. Treatment programs offer opportunities to break away from negative attitudes and patterns of behaviour. Offenders also have a chance to shift toward a more positive way of life through community service. Across Canada, inmates of federal penitentiaries are reaching out and giving back to society in numerous ways:

• Growing fresh vegetables to donate to shelters, soup kitchens and food banks
• Organizing sports tournaments and other activities to help kids stay off the streets and out of trouble
• Building cabinets and furniture for social housing
• Repairing used bikes and donating them to underprivileged kids
• Fund-raising to support charities that reach out to veterans, people with special needs, seniors living on their own, children with handicaps, women in crisis and others
• Cleaning up communities by removing graffiti, picking up garbage, shovelling snow and putting plants in public spaces
• Participating in programs to talk to youth about drugs and the consequences of bad choices
• Splitting and delivering wood and preparing traditional foods for elders in an Aboriginal community

Offenders who have lived successfully in the community for several years are also doing their part by helping others who have just left prison. One program matches newly released offenders with offenders who have managed to live in the community without crime and drugs for at least five years. Not only are they role models, they also help connect the newly-released individual with community resources and services, making the transition into the community smoother.