About Lagits CIC
Links a gap in the system
Lagits is a Community Interest Company that turns lived experience of the justice system into leadership, mentoring and new businesses.
Mission
To reduce offending and reoffending by helping people with lived experience of the criminal justice system build their own futures, through peer mentoring, enterprise education and practical support into self-employment and business ownership.
Vision
A justice system and business community where a conviction is not the end of someone's working life, and where anyone ready to change can turn their skills, drive and experience into a lawful business that supports them, their family and their community.
Social purpose
Many people leaving custody or serving community sentences face closed doors in conventional employment. Self-employment gives them a route around those barriers. Strong, legitimate livelihoods reduce reoffending, improve public safety and strengthen local communities.
We don't glorify the past. We use it to build a better future.
Our story
Two worlds coming together
The idea for Lagits was born from two very different worlds coming together.
Having spent many years working with young people, and now working in the Youth Justice Service, I saw first-hand the challenges they face and the barriers that stop them seeing a different future. I was committed to supporting them, but I couldn't fully relate to their experiences. There were moments when they couldn't connect with me in the way they needed to value any help I could offer.
Everything changed when I began working in a prison. There I met some truly inspirational men, with extraordinary resilience, remarkable talents and powerful stories of change. Many had made mistakes that led them into custody, but they had taken responsibility for their past and were determined that others wouldn't follow the same path.
These men had something that can't be taught: lived experience. They had faced similar pressures, made similar choices and overcome the same challenges as the people we support. Lagits was created to give them the chance to use that experience for good.
We don't glorify the past. We use it to build a better future, turning lived experience into hope, guidance and opportunity.
Our mentors
They've walked the path
Our mentors have first-hand experience of the criminal justice system. They have served custodial sentences, faced the same challenges as the people they now support, and transformed their own lives. They don't simply tell people what to do. They show that a different future is achievable, because they've lived it.
Who we prioritise
Leadership
Directors
Lagits CIC is led by a board that combines youth justice, safeguarding and business experience.
Founder and Director
Maxine Thomas
Safeguarding lead. Years of work with young people, now in the Youth Justice Service, and experience working in a prison.
Director, Business and Enterprise
Michael Sutherland
Leads the enterprise pathway, business partnerships and the mindset programme.
Know someone ready to build something?
Probation officers, prison staff, youth justice teams, charities and individuals can all refer. We'll be in touch to arrange a first conversation.