The Wisdom We Share | Spirituality, Consciousness & Inner Leadership

Val Wawrosz of Tempus Novo Exposes the System That Keeps People Reoffending

• Season 1 • Episode 20

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"99 times out of 100, they come back." Val Wawrosz heard that sentence for thirty years as a prison officer. Everyone called it bad character. He started to suspect we'd got the whole story backwards.

Here's the part nobody says out loud: we lock people up at £57,000 a year, when £3,000 would keep them out. Val and Steve Freer have now moved more than 1,400 people from a prison cell into real work, with a reoffending rate under 3 percent against a national figure of up to 60. As Val puts it, we set them up to fail.

This is not a feel-good charity chat. It's a quietly furious conversation about a system that's cheaper to keep broken, a prison minister who "didn't have time" to meet the two men outperforming his entire department, and a question most of us avoid: when we say everyone deserves a second chance, what about the people who never had a first?

If you have ever judged someone by the worst thing they have done, this one will sit with you.

IN THIS EPISODE

  • 200 job letters, zero replies, and the moment Val realised the system was rigged
  • Why £3,000 changes a life and £57,000 wastes one
  • The lie we believe about who is really behind the walls
  • The "merry go round" of release and return, and what actually breaks it
  • What it does to a person, including the helper, when a life genuinely turns

ABOUT VAL

Val Wawrosz spent more than two decades inside the British prison system before co-founding Tempus Novo with Steve Freer. The charity has supported more than 1,400 people into employment after prison, with one in five promoted within their first twelve months.

Website: https://www.tempusnovo.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tempusnovo/

X: https://x.com/tempus_novo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tempusnovo_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TempusNovo

GET INVOLVED

If this conversation moves you, Tempus Novo welcomes employers, partners and supporters. Reach out here: https://www.tempusnovo.org/what-we-do

The Wisdom We Share is hosted by Anjani Amriit and Robin Wald. Subscribe, share, and leave us a review.



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SPEAKER_00

A lot of these people in prison have just never when they say give people a second chance, a lot of them have never had a first chance because they've been dragged up in poverty, like I said earlier, been through the care system, but never had a chance in life. They've been traumatized by what's happened to them. They turned to drinking drugs to drown out what's happened to them. And once they've got an habit, then they can't get off the drugs. So it's just a merry-go-realm. And they just keep coming back. And I were looking, when I was locking people up in HMP Leeds, they'd come to be getting released, and they'd say to me, Well, see, in about six weeks then, Val. And I say, You're joking at you. No, please don't. And, you know, 99 times out of 100, they'd be back. And I just saw it was so sad. And for me and Steve to set this up and give these people an opportunity, they are so grateful and thankful. It is unbelievable. And the the feeling that you get when you help to change someone's life, I can't describe to you. It's like soul filling. And we've, like I said, we've been able to do it now for the 1425. You get a fill falling out along the way, but you know what? A lot of these people, once they get given an opportunity, they turn out to be the best workers they've got. I think our last statistics showed that one in five get promoted within 12 months. That's how hard they work because they go into the company, they think there's to prove themselves more than anyone else.

SPEAKER_03

Welcome to the Wisdom We Share podcast, where ancient truths and modern intelligence weave together to inspire, ground, and shape us for a wiser, awakened life. I'm Angenet Amrit.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm Robin Wald. And together we bring you fascinating conversations from the world of spirituality, science, and human behavior so you can connect to your own inner wisdom, joy, and clarity, elevating the way you actually live your life.

SPEAKER_03

Today's conversation is one that speaks to something deeper than leadership, business, or even personal development. It speaks to human potential when it's given a second chance. I'm joined by the incredible team behind Tempest Novo, a world-leading charity that's quietly transforming lives, communities, and the entire systems by doing something both simple and profound. Helping people rebuild their lives through meaningful employment. Founded by former prison officers, Tempest Novo works directly with individuals who are committed to change, supporting ex-offenders back into real jobs with real support and real accountability. And the results speak for themselves. With a model that places people into sustainable employment and continues to support both employee and employer for at least 12 months, they're not just reducing re-offending. They're not just reducing re-offending. They are breaking cycles that have existed for generations. What does it really take for a human being to change? What role does dignity, purpose, and belief play in transformation? And what happens when society stops defining people by their past and starts investing in who they can become? Today we are really excited to have Val from Tempest Novo, one of the founders, join us. Val, thank you for being with us today.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you all for having me.

SPEAKER_03

So I'd love to

How Tempus Novo Began

SPEAKER_03

start off if you could just share a little bit about what Tempest Novo is and how you started it and when you started it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So yeah, so myself and a guy called Steve Freer worked in the prison service for around 30 years each. And we both had ended up in the same prison in HMP Leeds, where we met back in 1990. We went our separate ways within the prison. We still were aware of each other, but Steve was in one area, I was in another. Now and again we came across each other. But it soon became apparent to me. After I'd been in the job, well, I'll go back a little bit. After I've been in the job about three years, I thought to myself, oh, is this job really for me? I'm just locking people up, barking orders, telling people what to do, where to go. And there wasn't there were very little job satisfaction, but I had a thought. I thought to myself, do you know what? If I could just stop one person coming back to prison by something I say or do, or some actions that I take, I thought, that'd be something really special. And and together with Steve now, we've we've managed to do that for 1428 people so far. Wow. But the beauty about that is only 40 of the 1,428 that we've placed into work have actually gone back to custody after working with us for two years, which is staggering compared to the national statistics, which are up to 45% re-offend within 12 months of leave of prison, and up to 60% of people re-offend within two years of leaving prison. And ours is less than 3%. So it's it's absolutely amazing. It tells me that work actually works. So while while we were on this journey, so after

Poverty, Not Character

SPEAKER_00

being in Leeds for quite a number of years and meet and speaking to thousands and thousands of lads, because it was a male adult prison, you soon realise that these people come from poverty and nothing much else, really. That's what they're guilty of, unfortunately. And that when you speak to them and they come into prison and they're quite willingly go out working down a hot, sweaty kitchen doing six, seven days a week, 12-hour shifts, getting up at four o'clock in the morning, a bit like you and Johnny, and getting paid £15 a week, but loving what they do, and quite willing to get up and work hard. And I used to ask them, I used to say, Why the hell? You do this in prison, you get on well with staff, you get on well with your peers. Why can't you do that on the out? And the stock answer coming back was, have you ever tried getting a job with a record like mine, Valve? And unfortunately, I've actually witnessed them writing in them days 150 to 200 letters to 150 to 200 companies around Yorkshire and being honest in the letter, because by law they have to be, they have to declare, and not getting one answer. And that was just a massive blow to them because they knew when they were released, they have no chance of getting a job, so they're going back to crime. It's as simple as that. And we we set them up to fail. And all of them.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I was gonna ask. So it sounds to me like it

Real Jobs, Real Support, on Both Sides

SPEAKER_01

would be very, very important for your organization to have relationships with employers who are willing to engage the services and standby ex I don't know what you call them in the UK. Ex offenders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how like can you give us an example of some of the organizations that you place people in and what types of jobs are available?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, no. So just just going back to the beginning, just quickly. So obviously, like you say, we've got to find some employers that'll take these on because they've wrote to all these companies. So me and Steve went out into Leeds, first of all, where we where we set up, got two companies, but we we knew Steve knew one of them nearly personally quite well, and said, Would you be interested if you put 12 months support in place, not just for the individual that we place, but for the employer as well. That's that's it, that's the important bit. The support is for both. And to our surprise, two companies took us on, and within about five or six weeks of placing a person in each of those companies, they were ringing us up saying, if you've got any more people like this, is the best worker I've got. And then that grew and grew, and then they'd recommend us to one of their friends in another company, and we've now got people, companies such as John Lewis, Amazon, GXO Logistics, Mersk. We've got massive national companies who are working with us. The jobs vary, it can be few in construction, a lot, a lot in logistics. Logistics is a massive growing economy in this country. You know, people are buying online all the time and having them delivered to the homes. And it's it's it's enormous. And I think out of the 1,425, we've probably placed probably six to seven hundred of those people in logistics across around 32 to 40 sites across the country. So, yeah, so there's construction, there's manufacturing, there's bread making, there's window cleaning, lots and lots of different, it's all quite basic skills work, to be honest, initially, because it's a fact that 70%

Who Is Really Behind the Walls

SPEAKER_00

of people in prison have the writing at the literacy and numeracy of a 12-year-old. And that's a fact. 30% of the people in prison have been through the care system. Now that is quite sad because when I listen to some of the lads that have been through the care system, it's totally the not the care system, and the opposite to that. And some of the things that tell me it's just like heartbreaking. And these people are traumatized. They've never the the a lot of them obviously haven't had parents around, so they're they're lacking love, if truth be told.

SPEAKER_01

Does it does it do you have certain standards of who's allowed to apply for your program in terms of the kind of conviction they had? Like, do you take just nonviolent offenders or can anybody re be rehabilitated and placed into employment?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I dare I dare say, well, but what we've found is, um and what when we've asked companies, because we went before we started doing it, we do some work with employers and ask them what type of people would you and wouldn't you take. So we came to a conclusion. We've been running now since 2014, by the way. So we're not just uh flashing the pan. And most employers expressed that they would not take sex offenders, arsonists because of the increase in insurance premium, murderers, or anyone connected to terrorism. So that's the only type of offences that we don't work with. We work with anything else other than that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And what would you say have been your biggest challenges? Because I would I would imagine, well,

The Real Obstacle Is Stigma

SPEAKER_03

I know, there's such conditioning that we have around people who have been incarcerated. We have a certain idea or belief about these people. What's the biggest challenge that you think we needs to be overcome in people's minds around rehabilitating these people and like you said, offering them love, offering them support, offering them nurturing and nourishing, that general generally people need to overcome in their own minds in order for this to be able to be rolled out more more quickly, more widely. What would you say?

SPEAKER_00

I think the problem you've got is the stigma, obviously. I know when people, if you look at any in prisons in this country anyway, for instance, they look terrifying. I worked at HMP Lee's, which nickname is Armrits. It's called the hanging house on the hill. They actually execute there and they actually executed 97 people there, the hung 97 people. And I saw the saw where the gallows was and where the drop doors and everything. It's horrific. It's it's back in Dick's days. So the stigma, and when people look at the prisons built it all built in the Victorian times, or most of them, all they see is people who want to hurt them, murderers, rapists, paedophiles. They imagine the worst. The public per what my answer really is here, if we can change the public perception of people behind the walls, which is what I've just been talking about, because they straight away since they've been in prison, somebody thinks straight away that someone's there gonna hurt you. Either rape you, you know, be a paedophile, any of those what I've just mentioned. And if we can get the message out there that actually a lot of these people in prison have just never when they say give people a second chance, a lot of them have never had a first chance because they've been dragged up in poverty, like I said earlier, been through the care system, but never had a chance in life, they've been traumatized by what's happened to them, they turned to drinking drugs to drown out what's happened to them. And once they've got an habit, then they can't get off the drugs. So it's just a merry-go-round, and they just keep coming back. And I were looking, when I was locking people up in in HMP Leeds, they'd come to be getting released and they'd say to me, Well, see, in about six weeks then, Val. And I thought, you're joking at you. No, please don't. And you know, 99 times out of 100 they'd be back. And I just saw it was so sad. And for me and Steve to set this up and give these people an opportunity, they are so grateful and thankful. It is unbelievable. And the the feeling that you get when you help to change someone's life, I can't describe to you. It's like soul filling. And we've like I said, we've been able to do it now for the 1425. You get a fill falling out along the way, but you know what? A lot of these people, once they get given an opportunity, they turn out to be the best workers they've got. I think our last statistics showed that one in five get promoted within 12 months. That's how hard they work, because they go into the company, they think they've to prove themselves more than anyone else. And they just turn out to be fantastic workers.

SPEAKER_03

And what happens in their family as well? Like, you know, first tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, it's straight away. So what we do now, I

The Ripple Effect on Families

SPEAKER_00

think it's really important that we try and keep, as well as keep in touch with them for 12 months and the employer that's that's supervising them, we also try to have a member of the staff, a member of their family that we can keep in touch, either a brother or a sister, or a wife, or a mum, or a dad. And the effect on them is like just again. So when you change, when we've changed 1,425 people's lives, you could probably multiply that by three or four for the family's lives that's been changed as well. Because I can remember a lad who said to me he hadn't spoken to his dad for 11 years because he'd been in and out in prison for 11 years. And once he realized he'd got a job, he got back in touch with him, started speaking to him, started going golfing and taking him out for meals and things like that. And it it it were just like I said, it's not just life-changing for that individual, it's for the whole of his family as well, brothers, sisters, and friends as well. Because we've had people come to us, we've helped them. About four or five weeks down the line, somebody knocks on our door. Oh, I I is there any chance I could have your help? So, who's referred you? I said, No one's referred me. A friend of mine came and he you got him a job, and he's been a job in a job ever since. This isn't, you know. We've had quite a few people come to us like that, which again is it's getting the word out there, really, that there are organisations like Tempest

Word of Mouth, and the World Takes Notice

SPEAKER_00

Novo, but we are filling far between. We have had some interest from the states, strangely enough, in Virginia. Like George Mason University are doing some work on us now at the moment, doing some research on why we are so successful, and apparently it's been tried in the states and it's not as successful, or it's a lot more expensive. It costs us as a charity £3,000 to get someone, get him sort of work ready, if you like, make sure he's got all his right-to-work documents in place, then place him in work and support him and the employer for 12 months. That costs 10 person £3,000, which is really cheap if you think about it, for that's for 12 months support as well. It costs the alternative to that is it goes back into prison and it costs this country £57,000, which is ridiculous. It's a no-brainer. Why why aren't we helping more of these people into work? As a government, why aren't we doing it? And I know this I know the states is really needs a 10% of all.

SPEAKER_01

I was actually wondering whether you're aware of any organizations in the states that does this type of post-incarceration, job placement, job training, rehab.

Why It's So Hard to Copy

SPEAKER_01

And and has anybody reached out to you besides the George Mason University for research, which is amazing, by the way. Congratulations that they're interested and that they're studying what you're doing. But do you have any collaborations in the states or in other countries?

SPEAKER_00

We had we had one in Australia for a little while as well, which seemed to have fizzled out. It's just so we had the Australian Prison Service ringing us, and we had a few Teams calls with them, and they were really keen. But I think it's a case of, you know, they they were going to try and do it themselves. But the problem is, if I'm honest, and and even in the English Prison Service, we've got an organization called New Futures Network, which was set up after meeting Steve and I in London, we got technical London and asked, could we tell them all about what we do, how we do it, why we do it, where we do it. And then a guy from policy and government went away and set up an organization called New Futures Network, and they tried to copy what we do. And they do it quite badly, if truth be told. And because when you're working in the as a civil servant, it's a job. And when you knock off at five, four or five o'clock, that's you're finished. 10% of us not like that, it's 24-7 for us.

SPEAKER_01

I'm wondering, you mentioned, you know, people who have addiction issues, or you know, I I wonder how common it is, right, when people get back right into sort of their old life

Addiction, Relapse and the Cycle

SPEAKER_01

after they're released and they're with their old neighborhood and the same gang and the same people. It's very hard to stay on a straight and narrow path. And if addiction or substance abuse is part of that story of what you were engaged in in the outside, it's very easy to fall back into that addiction trap. And I'm wondering if part of the support that you're offering or that the government offers to people who've been released, do they get any kind of services for addiction counseling or any other kind of therapy to help them with their trauma when they're on the outside?

SPEAKER_00

I suppose there'll be an option for them to go for that, but we we don't do anything with them on on that, to be honest. What what we because what we that's another thing we rule out actually, if they haven't been either alcohol or drug clean for a minimum of six months, then it's pointless working with them, to be honest, because as you've just been mentioning, once they get back into the bad world and back with the friends, it's so easy to drop back into them ways. But the support does help with that, and obviously every prisoner that leaves prison in this pump trade has to report to probation as well. So they do have probation support, even though it's not very good, if I'm honest, at least there's someone there at the end of the phone. But there's not if if they get into work through us, then there's his case worker is there basically 24 7.

SPEAKER_03

And have you noticed, Val, that if if you're working with people, because I would imagine that that is a wonderful goal for them to reach for, you know, something, some light at the end of that tunnel to get to actually get clean. If they if they can get clean, they can get a job and they can get themselves out of this. Cycle because it sounds like there's not really much help for them to get out of the cycle, it's more promoting them to stay in it, to be honest. Because let's face it, it's just not sexy, is it? It doesn't sell. So, what have you found in terms of the people who've come through your system for your charity who maybe have had a habit, got clean and got into an employment? Can you think of any of any examples, any specifics?

SPEAKER_00

There's lots of them, to be honest, Angani. There's lots of them who's who've had drugs issues and alcohol issues. We've had the ones, we've had the odd ones fail as well, to be fair, you know, up and cards on the table. Some will fail. It's too much of a temptation. But even the ones that fail have come back and got themselves clean again and thought, I loved that 12 months that I had where our drug playing, our working. And once they've had a taste of it, because they might have been in that in the doldrums for 10, 15 years and don't know anything else, and they're in that mindset, they can't get out of it. Once they've had a little taste of it, even the ones that maybe fail tend to come back and try again. But yeah, there's there's not much help for them, to be honest. And it is a it's a case of, you know, you're gonna have to help yourself here as much as you can. We're at end of the form for you. We can offer support as much as we can, but you're the person that has to do it, you know, and you can you can talk till you're blowing the face to someone who's on drugs. And if he's not ready to change and don't want to stop taking them, then there's nobody in this world will ask will make him do it unless he's ready to do it himself.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think what I'm hearing is you're you're and uh like I said in the intro, you what you're offering with Tempest Nova, which is a charity, I'll remind people, and if anyone is interested in supporting this charity, please, we'll put all the links in the in the show notes, please reach out to either us or Val and Steve. Is that it's it doesn't have to be complicated, it's a the solution is as simple as give someone a chance, give them a go, as they'd say in Australia. Give them a chance to rejoin society, or as you say, to join society when they've been on the out all their lives, or they've been through care when they haven't had love, nurturing, nourishment in the way most of us do. They don't necessarily need a complicated plan, they just need hope, and I think that's what you're giving them. What would you say?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. I can remember one lad in particular who'd been in work about six weeks, and he rang me up one day. He said, You know what? He said, I went on,

"I'm Back in Society": Work and Dignity

SPEAKER_00

I've got on the local bus this morning. He says, it was early at half past five in the morning, he says, and normally if I were getting on a bus at that time, I'd have been out up to no good, he says, and everybody would be looking at me. Sort of, oh, what's he been up to? You know. He says, but I was there with my high-vays, my work boats, and all my stuff, and he says, and I'm looking at the bus and he thought, I've done it. He says, I'm back in society. He says, and wow, he says, how good did I feel? And yeah, it it's it's it's a terrible place for them to get out of. But once they get a taste of it, like I said, it it, you know, there's a chance for them to stay out of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think psychologically, you know, I've studied a lot of things that talk about like how does someone overcome depression or choices that are really undermining their lives, their health, their well-being, their success. And a lot of times it is about as simple as get a job, do something for someone else where you are being useful, you are being productive, your time is being used to contribute to something greater that is outside of yourself. And then that naturally leads to a sense of self-respect and dignity, which sounds like this person's experience on the bus was I'm a dignified human being. Look at me, I'm heading somewhere that contributes and makes a difference. And I like that sense of self-respect is huge because I'm imagining that being incarcerated is a place where a lot of your sense of dignity and autonomy and you know, self-respect is stripped away. And so that needs a chance to get rebuilt. So what you're doing is really tremendous in terms of helping people rebuild their inner world as well. Not just earning a paycheck and staying away from crime because now they have financial resources, but even on an inner psychological, spiritual level, there's some real healing that can happen with work.

SPEAKER_00

And I think, and I know, I know you're quite spiritual, Anjani, and and I'm I mean, I'm a little bit myself really, because I've got a I've got a feeling that something,

The Unseen Hand

SPEAKER_00

and I'm not sure what, up there is helping us because we're doing good and we're changing people's lives, we don't get as as as dark side trying to stop us as well, by the way. But I think good will always conquer evil, and that's what we're seeing. We things happen which are really spooky sometimes, we you know, uh, but it it happens for a reason.

SPEAKER_03

Go on, give us the example. What's the give us an example?

SPEAKER_00

Well, we were one day we we we needed we needed someone's advice really desperately, me and Steve. We're coming back from on the train from London. We've been on about it as we were going down to London, and we needed to speak to a solicitor. And we're just trying to wreck his brains all we can ask for the and and on the way home, a solicitor rang us out of the blue and said he'd seen our website and he'd want, and you know, we thought, how how the hell has that just happened? That's just one thing. I mean, there's been loads and loads of stuff, and I can't think of something else, but that was just one example that a solicitor rang us after we'd been desperately seeking some legal advice, and and and while we were on the phone, then we just said so can we put this to you and and got some great advice. But there's been lots of things. Oh, good God, some quite, you know, spiritual, really. Divine, yeah, I'm a yeah, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure we are. I'm almost certain we are. Yeah. You can feel it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's wonderful, and it you you can feel what you're doing as well, the the authenticity and the integrity of it. And it's so rare in this world, isn't it? Because there's so many people in power who are just corrupt and the systems are corrupt. And what's your what's your biggest frustration? What's your biggest challenge? Without kind of pointing fingers or judging, but what is your biggest frustration or challenge right now in getting this out more into the world? Never mind the UK, but the world, what is it for you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, starting in the UK, if we could even get so we are a charity, we have all just received in 14 years now our first little tiny amount of government funding, and it's through

The Funding Fight

SPEAKER_00

a it's through an innovative guy called Dan Price, who's the police and crime commissioner of Cheshire. And he's commissioned us, he's he sought us out because he's looked at other organisations not like us but similar to us, and and and he's very astute because he's soon realized that we are the best in this country, and he's commissioned us to do a project for him in Cheshire. What frustrates me more than anything, after working in prison service for 30 years, and after knowing Lord Timpson, who's the now the prison minister, and after congratulating him when he got the post of prison minister, and he's been in events talking like us, because he runs Timpsons, his his family run Timpson's, and they were the first family organization to start rehabilitating prisoners. They used to take people on 20 years ago, and Gianni, in their key cutting shops and show repair shops. So the family are a massive, and hats off to him for that and his father. But then he's been appointed as the prison minister, and we wrote to him and said, Oh, congratulations, Sir James, on the appointment. And you you're you're quite aware of Tempest Nova. Well, can we come and see you? Me and Steve thinking, well, he's never run a prison. We ran prisons for 30 years. We're now running this organisation called Tempest Nova, getting people into jobs. And basically, he sort of fobbed us off and said, No, I ain't got time to see you. He didn't say I'll I'll see you in six weeks or come back to me in three months or anything like that. And I don't know what it is, because he's he's in charge of the prisons and is well aware. And for me, if the government keep paying £57,000 to keep locking these people up, or give us £3,000 and we'll keep them out of prison. How frustrating is that? It is so frustrating, and and the government needs to get a grip, and same, same in the other countries, it'll cost similar amounts of money to keep people in prison, it's got to do, if not more, in some cases. So that's my biggest decision. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, that's okay. I want to kind of pivot slightly and then ask you because the job that you're working in and what like obviously you're giving all of your heart and you know, best effort towards it, but it is frustrating. So I'm wondering what do you do outside of this mission and this work that you've taken on

What Keeps Val Going

SPEAKER_01

to take care of yourself and to de-stress and to find joy and let that go so that you can just, you know, kind of have those moments of peace for yourself. What do you do outside of that work?

SPEAKER_00

If I'm honest, it's sport. I've I play badminton every Wednesday for an hour, every Friday for two hours. I I've I've played football all my life, not at a very good standard, but a decent standard. And my son's played semi-professional, both of them. And then I got asked to play walking football. This'll this will be a good one for you. Walking football, what the hell's that? But it does exist and it's been recognised by the FA in this country. So I got asked to play for this team in Barnes and my old town, as I'm Johnny Norzov. And I went to play with this team, and within a few weeks, about three or four months, I got asked to play for the Northeast Region team. So I went along and played for the Northeast Region team, and we went and played England, and we played England, and it's over it's over 50s, over 60s, over 65s, even over 70s. And I went and played and played a couple of their teams, the 65s and the sorry, the 60s and the 65s, and we bet them. We bet the England team. And I scored, we scored three goals, and I scored all the three goals. So I got asked to play for England. So I went and trained with them. I got anyway. I ended up wearing injury. I got my ankle and I were out for weeks. But basically, I'm I'm sort of on the edge of playing for England for my country at walking football.

SPEAKER_02

Wow. I just sound fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I go, I like to go for long walks and just sort of clear my mind and just you know, so that that's how I do it. I play quite a bit of sport. I play table tennis for a bit. I'm thinking of starting playing tennis as a local tennis club about half a mile from my house. So yeah, I think that's what I do, is mainly I throw myself at sport and exercise.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I I think it's amazing, and I just want to point out something that may not be obvious to our listeners if you're only listening. So I'll ask the question: how old were you and Steve when you started Tempo Snovo? How old are you both now? Because I don't know that people might not realize. You both retired, I believe. You retired, and then you started this charity. So can you divulge your ages and yeah?

SPEAKER_00

So I'm so I start I retired from the service. We we were trying to set this up whilst we were still serving prison officers, which was difficult because actually we got opposition from the prison service, believe it or not, even though we're trying to do their job for them. But that's by the by. So I was 59, 60, coming up to my 60th birthday, and we'd already set it up, but I sort of left the prison service then. And me and Steve did it. Steve's about five years, six years younger than me, so he's and he took early retirement to start doing this and took a hit on his pension, actually, fair dues to him. And we we started it, we didn't have a penny between us, so we just funded it ourselves for about a year to 18 months before we could get any funding in. And I'm now I'm 71 this year, so yeah, I'm knocking on a bit, but I feel as though I'm still 41.

SPEAKER_01

Well, all that sport is keeping you young and fit, clearly.

SPEAKER_00

It has to do, something has to do, yeah. And I've got a loving family and wife and everybody, and it's you know, it's all supportive. So yeah, I mean, it's lovely, you know. And and like I said, it's so soul-filling. This when you're helping to change people's lives, it helps it just, you know, it's hard to step away from, if I'm honest.

SPEAKER_03

Because it's not a job, is it? It's a mission, it's a purpose.

SPEAKER_00

It is. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_03

And that fuels everything, you know. When you're on a mission, when you're doing good for people, it fuels us. It's like rocket fuel. We we just continue on and on. And so, what hope do you have, Val, for the future? I know you you're overcoming lots of obstacles. I mean, the the walls and barriers that you are daily pulling down is miraculous in itself. What hope do you have for the future?

SPEAKER_00

I just hope that we can get some proper funding, if truth be told. So because funding is a constant battle. Every day we're trying to think where to get more money from, and you know, and it's hard to come by. But my hope is that we can continue getting funding and continue growing, because we are growing, we're a growing organisation. There's about 16, 17 of us in the organisation now. It was just me and Steve to start off with. We cover quite a large chunk of Yorkshire, Cheshire, the Midlands of the country and the northeast slightly. So my hope is that we'll be able to cover more of the country, but government to fund us. Or someone with, you know, a philanthropist who's got a lot of money who can just sling a few million quid at us and say, There you go. Help because at 3,000 pounds per person, that would help a lot of people to change their lives.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. What would you do if you had three million today? If someone just said here's a check for three million, what would you do with it? How many people could they help?

SPEAKER_00

Well, if if you do the math, so if we if we just say it really simply, 3,000, I don't know what the math says to 3 million, but it's quite it's not what is that? I don't know, is it a hundred thousand people? I'm not sure. Not that many, perhaps. 10,000 people's lives probably changed. I think it's probably 10,000. About 10,000 lives have probably changed to 3 million.

SPEAKER_01

You know, there's a teaching in the Talmud in the Jewish tradition, and it says if you save a single life, it's as if you saved the entire world. And it sounds like your organization has saved or changed at least 1,400 people's lives. And even the way you spoke about, well, that changes their families, it changes their community, it changed, it just expands like ripples outward and outward and outward. So every single life count, every single success story matters to not just to you, but to the to the person and every person that person then influences and impacts for the rest of their lives. So it's it's really very sacred work that you're doing. And I do hope that our listeners, if you have any contacts, our listeners to help Tempest Novo and you know, maybe some good important contact in the government there and get some conversations happening about how this work can really be expanded. You know, and supported. It's really important. Thank you so much for spending time to tell us about what you're doing. And it it is very hopeful, actually. Definitely shifted perspective that I have around what can be done, what's possible to be done. It's not hopeless.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, I totally agree. Thank you ever so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for joining us. This has been the wisdom we share.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Wisdom We Share podcast. We hope today's episode sparked some new insight, imagination, and practical tools you can integrate into your daily life.

SPEAKER_03

Continue this journey with us by subscribing, sharing, and dropping us a review. Until next time, stay wise.

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Anjani Amriit

Host
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Robin Wald

Host
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Val Wawrosz

Guest