A man full of hope for ex-cons

FORMER PRISON inmate Wayne Chance has decided that a life of crime is more difficult than a life of honesty and has set his sights on teaching others who fall along the road to destruction, to “get up and fight the good fight.” Chance, who said he has spent a number of years moving from prison to prison, experienced the power of “God’s unwavering love” and decided to turn away from his life of destruction and vowed to teach others to do the same. He has since launched “Vision on a Mission” to do just that. Upon his release, Chance who is married to a “wonderful and trusting woman” for the last two years, said it was harder to live a life of crime. He said the stress associated with running from the police and being alienated from the people you love most, is not worth the risks you have to take. Chance has since opened a small business, called “Caribbean Bake and Shark,” where ex-prisoners can find work and which helps to pay the small staff that runs the daily operations of the organisation.

Chance explained that welfare officers attached to the organisation would try their best to assist these people and to prepare them to rejoin society. Vision on a Mission also operates a “Rapid Response System” where families of ex-cons can call for assistance, if the person is giving trouble at home and may need someone to talk to or to “calm them down.” Chance said the organisation’s database has over 500 ex-prisoners listed, most of whom have made a difference in their communities and who continue to walk on the right path. Chance explained that the organisation was presently working to establish an agricultural project at Blanchisseuse, which will include 15 dormitories to accommodate workers, a computer, agricultural tools, basic knowledge training centre, workshops, first aid training and counselling and support systems so that more ex-prisoners can be helped to successfully re-enter society.

Chance said he spent three years at the Port-of-Spain Prison working with the youths, then two years at Golden Groove, and even formed a rehabilitation and education centre at an old shed in the prison with the help of Prisons Commissioner Cipriani Baptiste. He explained it was a real challenge to continue what he had started when he walked out of the prison gates and realised there was no one there to meet him. “This was a real challenge for me, after spending eight years in prison and them coming out here to a society that had really changed. This was hard,” said Chance “There I was no parental support, no family support, no friends to help you through this. “I knew how to rob and do all kinds of illegal things to get a dollar and I was in Siparia living in an abandoned house and sleeping on an old mattress and depending on the neighbour from time to time for a plate of food.” Chance explained that even though the road has been rough and the struggle really hard, he has no intention of giving up on his “brothers” who are in need of help to move on, to begin their struggle for a righteous life.