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'IT’S NOT ABOUT PREACHING, IT’S ABOUT DOING'
Christian Pathway Leads To Top Business Listing In New Zealand By John McNeil, Challenge Weekly in New Zealand Sunday, December 4, 2005 CHRISTCHUCH, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- A Christian trust which uses ex-prisoners as the mainstay of its workforce has been honoured among New Zealand’s fastest-growing companies.
With a growth of 192 per cent over three years, the combined Engineering and Oak Tree operation has been placed 36 in the Deloitte “Fast 50” listing of New Zealand companies for 2005. The contest is open to any business which has a turnover greater than $1 million NZ. Among the high-flyers Pathway was competing against were the TradeMe auction website, and Kiwibank. Former prisoners were among the nine staff who attended an award ceremony in Christchurch held as part of a nationally coordinated series of presentations in each of the main centres. The ceremony has capped a remarkable history for the trust. The venture had its beginnings with the meeting of Mr. Mike Goatley and Murray Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy was the evangelism director at Riccarton Community Church, while Mr. Goatley was a man with a highly chequered past. Although raised in a Christian home, at 14 years old Mr. Goatley began a number of years “exploring life” and being an arrogant teenager. All he wanted was “fun, yahoo and no responsibility. I wasn’t going to answer to anybody”. The law became his enemy, and life became a search to find what he enjoyed and to pursue it to death. After nearly a decade of hard living, Mr. Goatley’s life was rudely interrupted when a serious motorcycle accident while under the influence of drugs and alcohol left him with severe internal injuries. He survived, but realised he had no power to change his addictive lifestyle and called out to God. “When I surveyed the chaos of my life, and asked what good can come of this, God gave me a vision of people who had made poor choices and the struggles they face trying to survive in society,” he said. “The key thing is being able to participate.” Mr. Goatley eventually became production manager of a Dunedin company making folding chairs and started taking employment opportunities to friends who were still going in and out of prison, and teaching them skills. When he moved to Christchurch, he and Mr. Kennedy started up Pathway Trust and manufacturing chairs seemed a natural place to begin. In a “pretty marginal” operation, they developed an export market to the United States, but the exchange rate put it under pressure. So they moved production to the US and with the remnants of the staff started Oak Tree Labour Hire. Pathway’s mission statement says it is committed to the successful integration of low-skilled and disadvantaged people through helping them to learn the life skills to become contributing members of society. In other words, the organization is providing alternatives to people who have got into trouble in their life by offering employment opportunities with a mentoring focus.
To do this, Pathway has a three-fold focus, which it sees as providing the key supports that prisoners need to connect back into the community. These are a stable living environment, work opportunities and mentoring which help people to build self-esteem through achievement. The second commercial arm of Pathway, Oak Tree Labour Hire, is in its third year of operation. Its main activity is unloading the contents of containers. Over the past 12 months it has taken on a total of 106 workers, the majority with criminal records. Most have been long-term unemployed and some have mental health issues. About 40 staff are engaged at any one time. They stay anywhere from two weeks to two years, with the average being six months. Most business firms would see this combination as a recipe for economic disaster. But Mr. Kennedy says it works for Oak Tree because they have developed strong mentoring, including employing a full-time social worker. Team leaders act as mentors and life coaches. The accommodation arm of Pathway is provided by the former Motukarara camp, about 25km from Pathway’s Hornby base. Well-known as a Christian camp in the 1970s, Motukarara had become run down and about seven years ago the owners decided to hand it over to Pathway, which is now renovating it. The site has also been approved by the Justice Department for home detention. The camp means the trust can provide a total package for Oak Tree workers coming out of prison: mentoring, safe accommodation and a job. Even those who come out of prison as Christians are vulnerable and need a halfway stage. “We’re trying to break the pattern by which people come out of prison and wind up with their old mates because they have nowhere else to go,” said Mr. Kennedy. Motukarara only takes people who are committed to life change. “We won’t take people who have not demonstrated a commitment to life change. There’s no point. Hostile people will just cause trouble for everybody.” The Pathway approach is making big changes for those who come under its wing. There have been numerous conversions to Christ among workers, families have been reconciled and lives turned around. Many find an acceptance there that they have not found anywhere else. As Mr. Goatley says, “It’s not about preaching, it’s about doing.” John McNeil is South Island reporter for Challenge Weekly, New Zealand’s non-denominational, independent Christian newspaper. He is a 40-year veteran of newspaper and radio journalism. |
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