Prisoners given second chance by online marketing firm
AN ONLINE marketing agency has teamed up with an ethical superstore to create a partnership to help ex-prisoners and inmates turn their lives around.
EthicalSuperstore.com has teamed up with Summit Media, which is based in HMP Wolds in East Yorkshire.
Summit’s on-site office is run from a single-storey building in the category C part of the prison.
The two companies are working together to help grow EthicalSuperstore.com’s online presence.
Prisoners are put through a ‘real life’ job interview process and many apply from other prisons purely because they want to work for Summit.
Once selected they are put through an intense training programme.
Prisoners are given varying levels of responsibility, depending on their skills.
Some workers come to the programme with ample computer knowledge while others have never touched a keyboard.
They have access to highly technical computer programmes which over time play a role in developing sought after IT skills.
For those prisoners who want to continue working for Summit after their release, Summit offers as many as possible the opportunity to stay on board at their office outside the prison walls.
Around 250 offenders have worked as part of the team at Summit since its creation seven years ago.
Hedley Aylott, managing director of Summit said: “I had a young programmer apply for a job with us. He’d previously got drunk and waved a Samurai sword at his flat mate while studying at Sheffield University and was given time for GBH. His life fell down. He came to Summit for two years, went back to complete his degree, got a First Class Honours and is now doing a PhD. We helped him pick his life up.”
Ethical Superstore was launched in 2006.
It sells 3,500 products from a 25,000sqft warehouse in Gateshead, employing 35 people and buying from 400 different suppliers or brands.
