New cafe will be run by former prisoners
BBCA cafe that will be run by former prisoners is set to open in May.
The Key Cafe will be based at a former Ministry of Justice building opposite HMP Bristol on Gloucester Road, Bristol.
Plans for the not-for-profit initiative run by The Restore Trust have been in the works since 2022, with building work now well under way.
Chef, Tom Green, who helped launch the project, said the business would help ex-prisoners "break the cycle" of reoffending.
"It's been really interesting, a bit of an eye-opener, very grounding. A lot of these people in prisons are from backgrounds where they only really knew one route, they only really had one choice," Mr Green said.
"Everyone deserves a second chance. The community have been really supportive of it."
In addition to being staffed by former prisoners, many of the cafe's baked good - including bread, traybakes and granola - will be made by serving prisoners. They will also produce their own jam.
The Restore Trust said it hopes the project will give people the chance to learn skills, improving not just their employability, but also their self-confidence.
"For many people who are in prison, many of them have experienced abuse and trauma either as children or as young people so we're often having to deal with that first," said the organisation's chief executive, Suzanne Thompson.
"If they have the right support and the belief behind them, we can tap into that potential and then they have the potential to do really well."
She added: "It's around building confidence and changing someone's negative self-identity and that negative narrative they tell themselves, that they're not good enough, that no one is going to employ them."
Any tips received will be donated to victim support.
"We know it's quite a unique approach and we're really hoping that if we can prove it as a concept and really reduce reoffending and save public money that could be invested into other services, this is something that could be rolled out across the country," Ms Thompson said.
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