CEART

In this conversation, Tricia Walsh shares her journey from a life of incarceration and addiction to one of empowerment and advocacy for indigenous rights. She discusses her Maori heritage, the impact of colonization on her community, and the importance of reclaiming cultural identity through education and resilience. Tricia emphasizes the need for community support and the power of personal transformation, offering hope and encouragement to those currently facing similar struggles.

Tony Crowe is a Belfast man who has been through the prison system, suffered punishment beatings, was forced to leave the country, but now is a leader in his community. Tony delivers Trauma Talks which is a series of workshops designed to help people process trauma.

Darren is from the Unionist side of Belfast and in this podcast he shares his experiences of youth, imprisonment, punishment beating, having to leave Belfast under threat of violence and his turnaround through recovery. Darren is founder of Aspiro Recovery.https://www.aspirorecovery.com/

Ashling Golden works for the Solas Project in Dublin who run the only initiative in Ireland to work with young people engaged in serious offending behaviour. The specific project titled 'Rua' covers Dublin 8 and 12 and involves outreach and one to one work mainly.

Dr. Sean Redmond is the leading voice on all thing related to youth crime and youth justice in Ireland.

Nola Sterling from London and Romarilyn Ralston from California are both activists and advocates for people affected by incarceration. Both have spent time in prison and in this discussion we can hear about the challenges they faced and some ideas on how we can support people to move away from a life of prison.

The founder of Spéire Nua is Damien Quinn. Damien had his own challenges with substance abuse and criminality right through his teens and well into his twenties. He realised he needed to change when it was too late. Knowing that he would be looking at a lengthy prison sentence, Damien made the decision to use the time to get an education.What he found though, when his time was served, was that no matter what he had done to improve his employability, the label always outweighed the progress he had made since ‘that time’.This led to disillusionment with the whole system which seemed stacked against him, even though he was after putting in a huge effort to change, become educated and employable and to do all the right things to set himself up to start again.His progress started to wain and he was finding himself right back where he started. He felt it was no wonder people kept ending up back in there. After a bought of misery and then some treatments Damien returned home to start again.Unable to get employment anywhere, he reengaged with education to fill his days. As he progressed with education he found employment through a friend and hasn’t looked back since.Throughout his studies, he has always been interested in making easier for people that are actively trying to turn their lives around and his goal is to make sure that no one has to experience the difficulties he did when trying to rebuild his life.Damien linked his Masters Study to the problem described here and wrote the paper Spéire Nua – New Horizons – Life after prison for the reformed individual, opportunities or barriers?This research was the foundation for the Spéire Nua you find here today and by engaging with this process you too can apply for a Certificate of Commitment to Change to support you as you seek employment and validate the hard work you have put in to distance yourself from your former way of life.