Business West Chambers of Commerce welcomes businesses from a wide range of sectors, sizes and structures, all of whom have different reasons and motivations for joining the community.

As part of our Chamber Member Spotlight series, we were excited to speak to Mark Hodge, who is Chairman of Your Consultation Group (YCG). 

We sat down with Mark to find out more about himself and the work that YCG are doing as a social enterprise group to reduce rates of reoffending and reintegrate prisoners into their communities on release.

“Your Consultation Group is a social enterprise group whose objects are to reduce rates of reoffending and to reintegrate prisoners into their communities on release. We have a fully integrated model for achieving those aims involving prisoner engagement, education, training, employment, and accommodation.”

“YCG and others like ourselves are grappling with the societal problem of the cost of reducing reoffending. HNPPs currently estimate that to be in the order of 18.1 billion pounds a year, which is a very large number, and which affects all of us. There are 50,000 prisoners of working age leaving prison each year, and only 7% of them will be employed after 12 months. Also, there are 800,000 prison leavers already in the community who are unemployed.”

With many other socially responsible businesses within our chamber community, Mark has been able to amplify YCG’s message to an engaged business community through our networking events, sponsorship opportunities and by sitting down with our team for this interview!

Businesses across from a spectrum of sectors and sizes are facing skills shortages, and YCG are highlighting an important opportunity for employers who not only want to attract and retain talent, but to help give prison leavers a chance to reintegrate into society. 

“I’m making this video today with the chamber to seek to extol the benefits of being a chamber member. We joined a year ago, and we found being a member has been really helpful to amplifying our message and meeting socially responsible employers in the southwest, who are looking to give prisoners a second chance.”

“Having the opportunity to talk to so many organisations with like minded individuals who are interested in Corporate Social Responsibility has been really helpful to us and has allowed a greater awareness of everything that we are doing.”

You can watch our full interview with Mark below and discover more about Your Consultation Group through their website.

If you’re interested in learning more about the ways our Chamber of Commerce can benefit your business, you can find out more and join the Chamber network here.