Trying to change the story…

Another week, another deluge of baffling news. What a time to be alive. You simply can’t fault the consistency.

With that in mind… it’s got to be worth throwing in my tuppence of (measured) positivity. Would you agree? You do agree. How wonderful.

I’ve written before about Open 2 Recovery. And I make no apologies whatsoever for circling back to it. Some things are too important to mention once and move on from. This is absolutely one of them.

In fact, the more time we spend around the programme and the people involved in it, the more convinced I am that it’s one of the most genuinely impactful things I’ve encountered in years. Maybe ever.

And I don’t say that lightly.

You hear a lot nowadays about businesses wanting to make a difference. Plant a tree when someone buys a jumper. Sponsor a goat somewhere. Offset this, neutralise that. Fair enough. Some of it’s good stuff. You’ll hear no grand grumbles from me.

But I can’t help thinking Open 2 Recovery sits in a completely different category altogether.

This is about reducing repeat offending, helping people rebuild their lives, and ultimately making communities safer in a very tangible way. It’s certainly not a branding exercise or feel-good add-on.

Honestly, it baffles me that programmes like this aren’t already operating nationally with serious government backing. It feels like a complete no-brainer.

But anyway. Here we are.

The exciting update is this: we think Fight Back Against Retail Crime might be the right vehicle to help push this further.

We’re now moving closer towards turning Fight Back into a proper not-for-profit initiative, with Open 2 Recovery becoming one of its integral partners.

That’s a significant step for us. And let’s be fair, it’s a slightly daunting one too. The responsibility changes a bit once you go from ‘hosting industry events’ to ‘fundamentally changing how we view and treat offenders’.

We recently held the first steering group meeting around all this, and the calibre of people in the room showed we’re not alone in our thinking. Senior police leadership. A magistrate. Specialists tackling organised drug issues nationally. Officers deeply involved in both Fight Back and Open 2 Recovery. People who’ve seen the problem from every angle imaginable.

And the conversations were fittingly fascinating.

Outside of that meeting, I keep coming back to big questions like: what is Fight Back Against Retail Crime, really? How does it make a meaningful difference beyond awareness and discussion?

The events themselves are brilliant for bringing people together. You’ll often get store managers, independents, local retailers, people from bigger organisations, security professionals, police – all in one room sharing ideas and experiences.

But quite often the people attending aren’t necessarily the ones able to influence policy or sign off huge investment decisions. So how do we make sure there’s still practical value flowing back to them?

Well… this could well be it.

One of the things that hit us hardest when we first engaged with former offenders through Open 2 Recovery was the depth of their understanding. The way they assess vulnerability, read staff confidence, suss layouts, understand routines, and picture pressure points. It’s unbelievably nuanced.

Most retailers and store staff never get access to that perspective. Why would they?

So the idea now taking shape is incredibly simple, but potentially very powerful: retailers pay for former offenders in recovery to come in, carry out store vulnerability clinics, and run assessments.

What an extraordinary opportunity to gain insight directly from those who best understand retailer weakness and industry blind spots.

Former offenders contribute. Retailers gain intelligence and practical advice. The funding then feeds directly back into the recovery programme itself.

That bit matters enormously, because the financial reality is pretty brutal.

In Nottingham, it costs around £3,500 to put someone through Open 2 Recovery because charitable organisations heavily subsidise it. In other parts of the country, it can cost £8,000–£10,000 per person. Significant amounts, for sure.

I guess that explains why punishment and prosecution tend to dominate the conversation…. because recovery takes time, coordination, money, and belief.

But if someone comes through recovery, stays sober, reconnects with family, finds purpose, and then actively helps reduce offending in others… well, that feels like a pretty good investment to me.

There’s still heaps to figure out, from initial funding and structure to scaling the whole thing without losing what makes it special. But yeah. That’s where we’re at.

For the first time in a while, it feels like we’re not just talking about retail crime as an inevitable fact of life. It feels like we might actually be building something capable of changing the story.

Worth pressing forward with, would you agree? You do agree. How wonderful.