@noelgmurray
https://www.linkedin.com/in/noelmurray/The Open-Door Restaurant: Unlocking Potential is a collaboration between Munster Technological University (MTU), Cork Education & Training Board (Cork ETB), Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities (IASIO) & Cork Prison (IPS). The programme was designed to train and educate prisoners to improve and develop their culinary skills and workplace learning. Based on several factors including ‘good behavior and sentence management’, six prisoners were selected to engage. Developing practical skills with theoretical knowledge and a food safety qualification enhances a prisoner’s opportunity and potential to secure employment post-release. The programme culminated in a pop-up restaurant, aptly called ‘The Open Door’ allowing the students on the programme to demonstrate (and be assessed) on their knowledge and skills in the culinary domain. This was an extremely novel concept, as it was situated on the main prison corridor, with over 50 guests in attendance many of whom were employers from the hospitality industry. The major outcome of this programme is that four of the prisoners are now currently working in the culinary domain in the community, whilst the remaining two are awaiting release (with both having offers of employment). With national recidivism statistics showing that 45% of individuals released from prison re-offend within one year of release (CSO, 2019), this collaborative initiative aims to assist prisoners to gain employment, thus improving the likelihood that they will not re-offend, which has the potential to have a transformative effect on them, their families and their communities.
