From their very first visit in a juvenile prison in Siegburg in 1972, the young people from the “Jugendbund für Entschiedenes Christentum (EC)” (Christian Endeavor Union), Hückeswagen-Scheideweg, were convinced that they would come again. They began a contact group in which citizens from all kinds of social backgrounds, age groups and vocations visit the prisoners, form relationships with them and thus build bridges across the prison walls to the world outside.

Contact Groups need members of all ages. Crossroads volunteers offer opportunities to discuss about 'God and the world', suggest new perspectives and help on a practical level as well. These conversations take place between individuals during the contact meetings, sport activities, worship services and concerts inside the prison. At the moment, we have twenty contact groups in sixteen prisons.

More than three hundred volunteers are involved. Many live close to the cities where the prisons are located. Conversing with them often provides the convicts a outlet for their frustration and help to reduce tensions in the relationships to others in the totally institutionalized life in prison. Bible studies give the prisoner new impulses which help him to overcome his own difficulties and encourage him to think about his own responsibility, about relationships and forgiveness and about the meaning of life. Such internal confrontations are essential if the individual is to be successfully reintegrated into society.

Seminars in Haus Kreckersweg (North Rhine-Westfalia) and Schloß Wendorf (Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania) provide a good introduction to the contact group ministry.