Ever since its formation Nacro has worked to reduce crime by creating opportunities for disadvantaged, marginalised people – both offenders and people at risk of offending – to turn their lives around.

The extent of Nacro’s work is now dramatically different from when I first joined the organisation 37 years ago as North East Regional Organiser at the age of 23.

Nacro then had around 30 staff covering the whole of England and Wales. On my first day I entered my Bradford office knowing that, with just one other staff member providing admin support, I had to start virtually from scratch developing Nacro activities across Yorkshire, Northumberland, Durham and Cumbria.

Today Nacro has become Britain’s largest crime reduction charity, with 1,500 staff providing direct help to around 90,000 service users each year.

In just eight years since I became Chief Executive Nacro has increased the number of service users we help by 225 per cent, doubled the number of young people involved in our preventive programmes, tripled the number of serving prisoners who receive resettlement help from Nacro and quadrupled the number of people given advice by our Resettlement Plus Helpline.

My 37 years with Nacro have been constantly challenging, as we have had to contend with constant changes in funding streams, crime patterns and shifts in government policy on crime and criminal justice. But it has been tremendously exciting to see Nacro grow from small beginnings to our operation of today and to see the fantastic contribution which our work has made to reducing crime and changing lives.

I am immensely privileged to have played a part in Nacro’s achievements over nearly four decades. I wish the new Chief Executive, Paul McDowell, every success in building on these achievements and in taking Nacro on to the next stage of its successful development.

Paul Cavadino
Chief Executive
2002-2009