MEN at YOI Portland are working with a Dorset charity to produce tables, dolls houses and garden furniture for them to sell.

The woodwork students at the Young Offender Institute on Portland will now be providing the bespoke wooden goods to Weldmar Hospicecare Trust’s charity shop in Oxford Court on the Granby Industrial Estate.

The men work with Weston College to attain qualifications, included in woodworking.

They use scrap timbers to create the products.

From Welsh dressers, bird tables, chests, plate racks, planters, doll’s houses and even a wishing well for the garden, all the money from the sales will go to Weldmar.

The men on the course at the Portland prison gain valuable qualifications in craftsmanship, as well as seeing their work going to do good in the community.

Lesley Riley from the YOI said that the learners got a skill, qualifications, they got to see the process of designing and creating a product from start to finish and they got employability skills which they could use on their release.

She said: “It gives the learners satisfaction, engagement – just to see the end product gives them a real fulfilment. They get the qualifications, the progression and the employability skills to reduce reoffending.”

Beverley Peck, area manager of Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, said the YOI had also been giving them fresh herbs and vegetables to sell and the response and support from customers had been great.

She said: “The customers have been really pleased to be buying something made by the men.”

Valeria Burnham, director of retail operations at Weldmar, said the partnership with the learners at the YOI was ‘exciting’.

Dan Skelton, Weston College’s vocational manager at the YOI on Portland, said they had other plans in the pipeline including getting the learners to build a house every few months, before taking it down and starting again and that they would be producing sign posts and boards for the Dorset’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

He said: “It’s job satisfaction but it gives the learners something to work towards when they come out.”

The YOI are also setting up The Woodlocker to create bespoke wooden products.

Anyone interested in working with them should email woodlockerportland@hmps.gsi.gov.uk