A free driving programme for ex-offenders has ambitions to teach those behind bars.
Howard League driving programme participants Walter (left) and Jason (right) with their instructor Channon Dunn (middle). Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
For now, the programme run by charity the Howard League helps people on the outside get a driver's licence - parolees, those on probation, or people on home detention and community service.
The organisation celebrated its success since it first started in 2014 in west Auckland today, where they've helped 700 people.
Jason, who went through the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court, was one of those who gathered at the Waitakere Railside Community Corrections site today.
He had been disqualified from driving many times and restarted his learner's licence with the Howard League a year ago - he received his full licence two weeks ago.
There were negative voices but he kept going, he said.
"They tell me that I can't do it or won't achieve it, but those aside, Channon [his instructor] had my back and showed me the ropes and I passed [the full licence] 100 percent," he said.
"I can't listen to the thinking because it gets me nowhere. Today I've got my full licence and I never thought I would have that. That's so cool and I've got a lot of gratitude."
Another man, Walter, was in prison for a driving offence last year - he was disqualified from driving. When he was on parole, his parole officer put him in touch with the programme.
Now on his restricted licence, he says it felt good to be able to drive to visit his grandchildren and he enjoyed his time with people from the charity.
"They understand me, whereas from my past I looked at the world like they hated me, but yeah I feel good and I trust them," he said.
Channon Dunn, Jason and Walter's driving instructor, said it's been a privilege.
"It's truly a blessing to be helping in your own community. Now I've been around a little while now and you see people come and go - families and everything, so you sort of know what's happening in and around the the low decile areas. Growing up in and around it, it's truly a blessing to be helping out people in our community," he said.
Howard League chief executive Mike Williams said New Zealand has a high rate of incarceration and to prevent people from offending and re-offending, employment is key, and 85 percent of all entry level jobs require a driving licence.
"Driver's license for a lot of people coming out of jail is a real silver bullet in terms of getting them work, getting them back lives back into a normal society and supporting their families," he said.
Williams was delighted with what his charity has achieved but he hoped more can be done in the future.
"We should be offering this on a much broader scale and our ambition, for example, is to get drivers licensing going in jails, and we don't think that people should leave jail without at least a learner's license."
The Minister for Social Development and Employment, Carmel Sepuloni, said the programme helps prevent re-offending, and helps offenders with their future employment.
"There are a number of ministers that are trying to paint a more coherent picture across the different programs where we are supporting people into drivers licenses and so it is important that we continue to consider this program as part of that bigger picture," she said.
The New Zealand Howard League now runs 17 driving programmes across the North Island and one in Christchurch.