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Community Adult Mentoring and Support Program

BY Bill Rankin, Communications Officer, Communications and Citizen Engagement Sector

Left to right: CAMS Coordinator Honora Johannesen, Vancouver Island Area Director Dave Keating and Carole Peterson, Administrative Assistant from the Church of St. John the Divine, community partner of the CAMS project.

Try to imagine yourself as having just been released from a federal prison on parole. During the time you spent on the inside, the world has changed and circumstances are such that you have no family to turn to for support, no friends, no job prospects, not even a roof over your head. How long will it be before you bow under pressure, breach your parole conditions or re-offend and find yourself back in prison?

These are the kind of men and women that Community Adult Mentoring and Support (CAMS) assists. Based at the Victoria Parole Office, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)-sponsored program was created more than four years ago under the leadership of Bob Brown, former director, Victoria Parole. Its aim is to supplement parole supervision by matching carefully screened and trained volunteers with parolees who need a helping hand as they readjust to the outside world.

“The program is similar in spirit to the Circles of Support program,” says CAMS Director Honora Johannesen, “but there are notable differences, too. CAMS is for any type of high-needs offender who has not reached warrant expiry, while Circles of Support aims exclusively at sex offenders who have already served their full sentences. Circles of Support originated in the community and is supported by CSC, while CAMS is a CSC initiative supported by community members.” Circles of Support works with a group of volunteers with one offender, while the CAMS volunteer works one-on-one with the offender.

Whatever the differences, Johannesen wants everyone to know that CAMS has proven to be effective, giving offenders the kind of positive community experience they may never have had before.

Getting Started

Ideally, the volunteer meets the inmate 90 days before his/her release date. It’s time enough to get to know each other and deal with compatibility issues before the pressures of finding a job and a place to live eclipse any other concerns. Once the inmate is on the street, he/she meets with the CAMS volunteer on an average of twice a week to discuss problems and lay out strategies for living.

“They meet in coffee shops, parks or other public places,” Johannesen explains. “They talk about things that many of us take for granted: how to get on a bus, how to balance a budget, using a day-timer so appointments aren’t missed. For many of these offenders, simple day-to-day functions present major challenges. They spend three or four hours a week together and the relationships often last for a year or more — until the offender is on his/her feet or, in some cases, until warrant expiry.”

Don Williams, a community support worker in his day job with the John Howard Society, has worked with the project from its conceptual stage and has been matched with four offenders since the program’s inception. “It’s a phenomenal project,” he exclaims. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of being involved. These offenders respect you highly for what you do for them. And it goes far beyond that — I know I’m doing something that makes my community a safer place for everyone.”

Williams and Johannesen agree that increasing community safety involves teaching offenders how to make good use of their spare time. “Most of them work eight hours a day, sleep another eight, but it’s during the final eight they can get themselves into trouble,” says Williams. “It’s important to point them towards constructive activities when they find themselves with time on their hands.”

Canary in a Coal Mine

Volunteers become so attuned to their matches that at times they act as the canary in the coal mine, sensing when the offender may be straying off the straight and narrow. Occasionally the offender will confide in the volunteer and that is an opportunity to talk about accountability and doing the right thing. Community safety is always the first concern, and if the volunteer suspects that something serious is going on, the parole officer, psychologist or Director Johannesen is only a phone call away.

But negative experiences have been few in the program’s history. Over 60 volunteers have gone through the 10-week training and, since 2001, they have assisted 104 parolees (with 42 matches in 2004 alone). To date, of the 84 matches that have come to an end, 22 terminated with a breach of conditions, three due to new charges and eight stopped at warrant expiry. Matches also end when an offender requests a transfer to another area or by mutual agreement when the offender feels that he/she no longer needs the support of a mentor.

Recruitment and Training

Johannesen works hard to recruit more CAMS volunteers — speaking at churches and schools, papering the colleges and universities with flyers and, as she says, talking to anybody who will listen. To sharpen interactive skills and help volunteers maintain enthusiasm, Johannesen arranges for them to meet periodically, for “in-service,” after the initial 10 weeks of training to share their experiences and tour nearby facilities — Kent, William Head and Fraser Valley Institution for Women. She believes it’s important for CAMS volunteers to see the places where their matches served their time, to soak up the atmosphere, and gain insight into offenders’ ways of thinking.

A Program with Potential

Johannesen is enthusiastic about the program’s potential to be used right across the country. “The template is there,” she remarks. “It’s not difficult to do.”

Although the offenders in the program don’t always succeed on the first try, they are not written off; their files remain active in the CAMS office. “Inmates come out with challenges,” Johannesen explains. “Sometimes they fail and are suspended but their volunteers say, ‘You go back and do your time and when you get out, I’ll still be here for you.’” ♦