Since 2022 we have been proud to work alongside the Criminal Justice Alliance on the ELEVATE CJS programme (Elevating Lived Experience Voices, Advocacy, Training, and Expertise in the Criminal Justice System). This leadership programme promotes the redistribution of power to people with lived experience of the criminal justice system, and we were delighted to provide participants with the support of our highly qualified, expert Life Coaches, as part of their journey.
The first cohort of leaders graduated in 2023, and we caught up with the brilliant Frankco Harris, who was a part of this group, to hear more about his experience of the programme.
In conversation with Frankco…
Frankco is a DPhil Criminology student at Oxford University, working on his doctoral thesis examining the socio-spatial dynamics of gang violence in Bermuda. His path to Oxford University was a unique one. Having moved to the UK from Bermuda in 2007, Frankco struggled with his mental health and spent time in prison. But through incredible hard work and determination he was able to carve out a brighter future for himself, returning to law school, and graduating top of his class, receiving multiple awards for his work.
In 2022 Frankco he came across the ELEVATE CJS programme and was immediately drawn to it.
“I loved the idea of ELEVATE CJS. I spent time in prison myself and I also mentored young men in prison, and I felt so disappointed by the opportunities that the system offers you, how it sees your worth. I’ve been in prison but that’s not all I’m worth, it doesn’t remove my ambition, my desire to do more or my talent. ELEVATE CJS was about me reclaiming my power. I’m always thinking about my purpose and how I can use my experience to make an impact, how I can turn pain into purpose, and this felt like that.”
Frankco reflected on the coaching he received through the programme.
“It was intense! It’s difficult to recall every detail, but it’s the old saying, we don’t always remember what people say but we remember how they made us feel, and that is very pertinent to how I experienced the Hero’s Journey. I left feeling empowered, seen and validated.”
Frankco talked about the Possiping exercise, where members of the group ‘positively gossip’ about you, sharing what they think are your strengths and qualities, with coaches capturing their thoughts on flipchart paper.
“I kept the paper! It was incredible to have a space where others help you to see what you can’t see in yourself. It’s a testament to the skill of the coach to facilitate a group session that holds a space to allow us intimacy, allowing others to see you in a vulnerable way, which is actually really empowering.
The people around me shared lovely things about me and I was able to hear it, recognise it and sit comfortably in that. We’re coming from places of being broken down, beaten, defeated, told we’re not going to amount to anything and then there’s all the trauma that comes before that. But the coaching is so empowering. It reassured us that our time in the justice system is just a small part of that picture, we are more than those experiences.”
After the group workshop, Frankco went on to have one-to-one coaching with our fantastic Coach, Michael Roper.
“It was beautiful with Michael. He has a way of being reflective and bringing himself into the sessions that makes you feel comfortable. He left me with nuggets of wisdom, things to think about, and challenged me in a beautiful way. We looked at short term goals and long-term vision. He gave me freedom and agency – it wasn’t about telling me what to do but asking me ‘how do you want this to go’, ‘what do you want from this’. And it flowed naturally.
The coaching is like guiding you back, plugging you back into your own source of power. Reminding you, you have the ability, the power to do what you want to do, and the battlefield is in the mind. Coaching is not your therapist and it’s not your boss either – it gives you the power and space to own and think about what you want, what you deserve and to go after it.
I can see that coaching is really profound in places like prison – you’re detained physically but to empower yourself in a place like that is where it matters the most. If you can do it in there, you can do it anywhere.”
Frankco reflected on the experience of working with a coach who is also a Black man.
“Having a coaching experience that incorporated elements of the Black Hero’s Journey programme, and working with a coach who is Black and can speak to those experiences, is like magic. The importance of healing with people who look and sound like you cannot be understated. It’s clear to me that the Black Hero’s Journey is vitally important and I’m inspired by it.”
We would like to say a huge thank you to Frankco for sharing his inspiring story with us and wish him all the very best in his incredibly important thesis! We would also like to say a huge thanks to the Criminal Justice Alliance for our continued collaboration on the ELEVATE CJS programme. And of course, a massive thank you to the incomparable Coach Michael Roper. We are so very fortunate to have him as a Spark Inside Coach.
