Jolita Vadopalaite

Volunteering really does change people’s lives

Jolita was moved to tears when she visited the Prison Fellowship Sycamore Tree course in May 2009 at HMP Wandsworth. She was going through a tough time then and was surprised how enlightened she felt by helping others.

She explains: “My personal emotions were up in the air but, to my wonder, I received healing myself when the course touched on forgiveness and grace. Listening to those involved in the course enormously helped in my personal walk of forgiveness at that time.”

Jolita has gone on to do four Sycamore Tree courses now for Prison Fellowship and finds the work truly liberating. She said: “The guys appreciate our volunteering and the effort that is put into the course. I witnessed radical changes in their thinking and behaviour within 6 weeks, which was very powerful. The men trusted us with their personal fears and issues. The conversations we had opened their hearts to hear the truth about themselves, their crimes and their victims.”

Jolita has witnessed the effects of crime first-hand, both within her neighbourhood and family, and she understands that people might be slightly wary to volunteer within a prison. For Jolita, it was through her church’s involvement in supporting prisoners and through a friend of hers who was already volunteering on the Sycamore Tree course that encouraged her to help with the work of Prison Fellowship.

Jolita concludes: “My time in prison has inspired me to initiate the Sycamore Tree course in another country. I am from Lithuania and I would like to see the Sycamore Tree there because I have seen and heard the powerful changes in people's lives once they take responsibility and realise what they have done.”