Three years after creating the Wood Shop Programme, Cleveland Simmons is still determined to change the Island -- one person at a time.

"We can write our own success stories,'' he told The Royal Gazette . "And success stories are being written here line by line and page by page.'' With the original Wood Shop Programme, Mr. Simmons' dream was to provide a Christian-based environment for prison inmates and former inmates to develop social and working skills to prepare them for life outside prison walls.

But now with the expanded Woodshop Plus Programme in St. George's, Mr. Simmons is on the way to taking his dream one step further.

The "plus'' in his ambitious undertaking represents the expansion of the programme to include much more than woodwork and convicted criminals.

He has been joined by dedicated teacher Roy Williams and has already expanded the St. George's facility on Old Military Road to include a classroom for remedial English and mathematics will be taught.

But Dr. Williams said the syllabus will grow along with its students.

Ultimately, Mr. Simmons hopes to list masonry, plumbing and agriculture among the trades and services available.

And the programme will become a "community based self-help programme'' open to anyone seeking to better themselves.

For better or for worse, the initiative is about to raise its profile as the infamous Chesterfield Johnson -- a child killer and rapist -- joins the group.

Mr. Johnson was convicted in 1978 for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Connie Furtado. His release last weekend has sparked concerns throughout the community about how such offenders should be treated.

As Mr. Simmons and his partners spoke with The Royal Gazette , Mr. Johnson quietly went about his carpentry.

And at one point, he proudly displayed a work in progress -- an unfinished cedar picture frame -- to his first pair of customers.

Programme coordinator Dennis Bean said there were a lot people in the community who had already "taken bites'' off Mr. Johnson.

"The truth is that there are a lot of people who have fallen short of the law, they just got away,'' said Mr. Bean.

But the Plus Programme would be there for those who had been caught and paid their debt to society, he said.

"The bottom line is that we want them to recognise them as a person, just like everyone else,'' he added.

Mr. Simmons is a fiercely idealistic and optimistic man clearly dedicated to his chosen goal.

"We are humble with our attitude, but arrogant with what we can know,'' he said. "If the community has a problem, that's our job.'' Links with the Prisons Service are strengthening and at least one of the Magistrates is willing to practice "alternative sentencing'', he continued.

"If they allow them to come, we will take them in and put them to work,'' he said.

However, the centre is -- and has been since it's inception -- struggling financially.

Corporate donations of funds and supplies, and the recent partnering with the National Training Board have gone a long way to establishing the programme.

The Plus Programme also contracts for any projects ranging from housework to garden maintenance, and carpentry to painting.

And Mr. Simmons said the penal institutions provided not only a huge labour pool, but one which is much cheaper than average.

Despite all this, Mr. Simmons said the company still needed between $400,000 and $500,000 to run the operation comfortably.

"Through this vehicle we are not asking for a hand-out, but a hand up. We are prepared to work for it to take this facility to the level it needs to go.'' "We are on the right track,'' he said.

"There is no way you could even think about shutting this place down, because then the question is -- what are you going to do with the guys who come down here?'' NEW BEGINNING -- Ex-murdered Chesterfiled Johnson hopes tomake a new start at the St. George shop Photos by Arthur Bean HARD AT WORK -- Dennis Bean, coordinator of the Wood Shop Plus Programme, works on one of the many pieces of woodwork in the facility on Old Military Road, St. George's.