Back in early January, chief officer Reginald Gomes and principal officers Sandra Gomes and Michael Christopher of the Farm facility were approached by Sarah Desilva and Llewellyn Simmons to partner for a project to transform Lyceum Preschool’s outdoor space.

After seeing the presentation we were excited to be a part of the venture. The potential for our inmates to be able to give back to the community, and in particular, our children, was welcomed. This coincides with the department’s mission: to empower inmates to be responsible and productive citizens.

Over the past months during school breaks, two officers teamed up with nine inmates to create a beautiful playground for the children’s enjoyment. To see the inmates taking pride in what they were accomplishing was really rewarding.

As the director of academics, Dr Simmons wanted to not only assist Sarah Desilva, the administrator, in transforming the learning environment for teachers and students, he wanted to build a community education partnership with HM Prisons to demonstrate how a collaborative education project could assist in transforming lives of inmates.

This Community Education partnership of the Department of Education and the prisons demonstrated how much more that can be done as a partnership.