A Brixton restaurant with a twist has teamed up with London Hilton Hotel to host a fundraising dinner this week.
Clink Brixton is one of four unique restaurants across the UK located inside a prison and will host the exclusive dining experience on Thursday, October 6.
The event will include a four-course dinner served by prisoners who are training for qualifications in hospitality.
Diners can certainly expect an unusual meal with the likes of pigeon, turbot, and potted rabbit on the menu.
Unfortunately those hoping for a tipple or two will not be entertained – in keeping with the ban across all Clink restaurants, alcohol is off the cards and guests will instead be welcomed with a non-alcoholic cocktail.
Guests will be treated to dinner cooked by Hilton’s executive head chef, whose impressive achievements include cooking for Prince Phillip’s 50th Birthday and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
A graduate of the revolutionary Clink scheme will also be at the event on Thursday to discuss how the program has transformed their life.
The Clink Charity is the brainchild of Alberto Crisci, who said: “We will continue to change public perception of prisoners.
“Through the work and training taking place, we can transform lives and reduce reoffending rates.”
The innovative scheme was introduced seven years ago to try and improve re-offending rates – 45.2% of adults re offend within one year of being released.
Their work has certainly paid off – there is an 87.5% success rate within Clink in reducing re offending.
Clink operates four training restaurants, two horticulture schemes and an event caterer.
It uses workshops to train prisoners who are C or D level offenders (the two lowest levels) and are coming towards the end of their sentences.
There are now 200 employers willing to give a Clink graduate a job and 800 prisoners have been trained.
This is only set to improve as 10 more restaurants are planned, and the charity is on track to achieve its target of having 20 prisoner training projects in operation by the end of 2020.
All the funds raised from the dinner will go to the Clink Charity to support the rehabilitation of prisoners through training, as well as the DM Thomas Foundation with Carney’s Community, who work to improve the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the UK and worldwide.
The dinner will take place on Thursday, October 6 at HMP Brixton and a limited number of tickets are available for purchase by emailing [email protected].
To find out more about the Clink Charity and its prisoner training projects visit www.theclinkcharity.org.
