A Touchstone Service for the Rehabilitation of South Asian Offenders working together with the National Probation Service and the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC).
What is Shafa?
Shafa is a newly formed Touchstone project working across the whole of
West Yorkshire.
Shafa means renewal, restoration and healing in Urdu.
Touchstone’s approach is to work with people who have offended from the South Asian community based on a recovery and strengths-based approach.
Skilled and experienced staff will work with South Asian people who have committed offences to resettle them within their communities across West Yorkshire providing a comprehensive and unique range of consultancy and cultural interpretation services to both the CRC and the National Probation Service across West Yorkshire.
Our Focus
Shafa is focused on complementing the work of Offender Managers to ensure service users from South Asian backgrounds have better and relevant access to service provision.
Staff will work using Motivational Interviewing techniques to maximise successful outcomes and ensure their long-term impact.
How Shafa enhances the work of the Probation Service and CRC
Shafa provides advice about cultural and religious issues which might be factors in understanding motivation for offending or the denial of an offence.
Often the service user will react differently to queries/challenges directed by Shafa staff and this can produce a much clearer picture of the offence.
Following participation in Shafa’s original group sessions, 93% of service users did not re-offend.
