Justice Awards 2007 - Cheshire Success
Two nominees gained success in the national justice awards. Ewan Easton of Thorn Cross Young Offenders Institute was a runner up in the Daily Mirror sponsored People's award and Brian Hughes of Cheshire Police was awarded the individual award for Commitment to Diversity.
Ewan is a music teacher at Thorn Cross and his work is instrumental to the rehab of young offenders.
He has introduced Halle4Brass, a music and educational project working in partnership with Thorn Cross, the City College Manchester and the Halle Orchestra.
He plays the tuba in the Halle Orchestra, and teaches young people to play a brass instrument, baritone or coronet, enabling young offenders to read music, and develop key skills in co-ordination and dexterity. His strong leadership and motivation of these hard to reach young people has inspired over 100 people to attend the evening classes and experience new skills in their lives. This has lead to an increase in confidence of the young offenders, shown in the many concert evenings he organises where the young people play with the Halle Brass Quintet, inspiring others to join the project and broaden their horizons. Ewan has lead the group performing a brand new piece of music at the Bridgewater Hall, and at a conference for 200 senior prison service staff without Ewan's supervision.
Brian is a Police Sergeant at Crewe and has worked on publicity to highlight differences in the law in Poland and England, especially those relating to driving and carrying knives. He has also introduced a system of "Community Observers" where Polish volunteers go out on patrol with Police Officers.
Another of the initiatives which Brian Hughes has been involved with is "Blue Line"; a dedicated phone line which enables Polish people to report incidents to the Police, in Polish. He has worked with South Cheshire College to provide courses in English as an acquired language and has helped to secure a grant of more than £300,000 for a centre for the Polish community. It will take time and resources to bring about the changes we want to see, and once again, it has to be a team effort. I have had tremendous support from other people and, in particular, from Krzysztof Pazowski, a member of the Independent Advisory Group, who has been involved in virtually everything we do.