The History of Community Chaplaincy Association
Discover the story behind the Community Chaplaincy Association - how our network began, grew, and continues to support prison leavers across the UK.
Our Story
Early Beginnings
The first community chaplaincy organisations in England and Wales were established in the early years of the 21st century. The development of this work, alongside other faith-based responses to the problem of re-offending, received support from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). In 2006 NOMS sponsored the employment of a community chaplaincy development officer by the organisation Clinks (NOMS 2007).
Growing Together
The CCA was registered as a charity in 2010. We currently have 35 organisations in full membership, with others as associate members or in an early stage of development. Members vary across a number of key dimensions including: size of organisation, financial strength, geographical location and extent of operating area, balance between paid and volunteer staff, range of activity, prominence of faith as a key principle and relationships with Prison/Probation Services.
The Journey
The work of community chaplaincies supports the process of desistance for people leaving prison. Desistance is best understood as a process rather than as an event; individuals who have been persistent offenders move gradually to a life without offending. Primary desistance refers to an absence of offending; a change of behaviour. Secondary desistance describes a change in identity; a stage where the individual no longer thinks of themselves as an offender. A further stage, tertiary desistance, is understood as the stage at which the individual is accepted and recognised in the community in this new identity. And so we move, from act-desistance to identity-desistance and finally relational-desistance. Act-desistance is about behaviour, identity-desistance is about the individual’s sense of themselves, and relational-desistance is about acceptance and recognition from other people. These ideas are all part of the desistance process, but are equally important and do not necessarily follow one after another. The narratives of faith and the narratives of desistance share in common themes of agency, relationship, growth and authenticity.
