News

Jubilee 10th year Yellow Ribbon Run, a unique run to promote the return of people with criminal record back into society, this year brings not only new programmatic elements but also record-breaking public interest. More than 1000 participants have already registered for the eventwho together send a clear message: Everyone deserves a second chance.

The actor and screenwriter remain longtime backers of the run Petr Čřetnicek, presenter and patroness of children of incarcerated parents Barbora Cernoškova a rapper Lipo.

Main theme of the year: Family and community

This year's edition highlights a key role families and communities when returning people from serving sentences. A new visual style and an innovative program help to share this message across generations as well as social bubbles.

News of the 10th year:

• Connecting Hearts Children Race — free run for children and parents, in cooperation with Connecting Hearts — Foundation for Children of Prisoners & Telio Group. Each child receives a T-shirt and a small reward.
• THE FANWALK VOL — a relaxed walking route, ideal for those who want to express support even if they are not running. Families, seniors and dog handlers can get involved. The partner is VOLONTÉ CZECH o.p.s.
• EASY RELAY 4×2.5 km — for community teams, recreational runners as well as complete beginners.
• Classic 4×5 km Relay — a challenge for sports-based teams and competitive runners.

New visual style and social research

On the 10th anniversary, the brand passed Yellow Ribbon Run a redesign that reflects its values — Second Chance, Humanity and Connectivity Across Society. The transformation of the visual is based on qualitative research among the public, partners and people with criminal backgrounds.

What the research showed:

• 52% of the population does not believe that anyone who commits a crime should automatically go to prison (10% definitely not, 42% rather not).
• This attitude is more often held college students and residents of large citiesEspecially Prague.
• Conversely 47% people (more often those over 65) lean towards more severe punishment.

The full research is available here.

Social overlap

Gabriela Slovakova, founder of Yellow Ribbon Run in the Czech Republic and Europe:

“In ten years, we have helped change the perception of hundreds of people. Today we have over 1000 registered participants -- this is proof to me that the company is ready to hear, understand and give a second chance. Every step on the track is a step against prejudice. “

Registrations for the tenth annual Yellow Ribbon Run will be open online until 10:00 p.m. on Monday, June 9, 2025. Interested parties can also register at the last minute, directly to the event, i.e. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Obora Hvězda.

‍

Jubilee 10th edition of the cross-country race Yellow Ribbon Run, which breaks down prejudices against people with criminal record and promotes their return to society, took place on June 10, 2025, with the utmost interest of the public. Overall into action Nearly 1200 participants registered. In the main part of the race, he ran nearly 650 runners, 70 active fans has been involved in VOL Fanwalk in cooperation with VOLONTÉ CZECH and Approximately 70 children raced within Connecting Hearts Children Race with support The Connecting Hearts Foundation.

The race has traditionally attracted well-known figures in public life. Runners and fans supported the actor Petr Čřetnicek, rappers Lipo, presenter and patron of the children's run Barbora Cernoškova and sports presenter Miroslav Lencwho accompanied the program as a presenting duo. Long term support for the event presenter Lucie Křížková and her husband, yachtsman David Křížek.

Professional production of the plant was provided by the team Michal Štys. He was involved in coordination Zoran Bartek, Marketing Director Czech Olympic Committee. Volunteers from the non-profit, public and private sectors have also played a significant role, especially from organizations VOLONTÉ CZECH, Companies of A-GIGA chi Recovery rooms Prison services Přední Labská and the Prison Service of the Czech Republic.

The event was also attended by prominent foreign justice representatives - Yellow Ribbon Singapore, CEP Probation and Europris.

A run that connects even behind bars

An irreplaceable part of the Yellow Ribbon Run are themselves sentencingwho participate in the race as both runners and organizers. This year, within Virtual runs in prisons engaged More than 400 convicted.

The opening of this year took place in Příbram Prison, which was already running almost all prison facilities during the Covid era. This year, 30 out of 35 prisons in the Czech Republic participated in the Yellow Ribbon Run. Three prisons — Jiřice, Karviná and Heřmanice — in addition, they prepared special running events that allowed meetings of convicts with their children and families. These powerful moments were created in collaboration with Probation and Mediation Service and show that sport can be a route to restoring both trust and relationships.

“The Yellow Ribbon Run is not just a sporting event. It's a voice for change -- a voice that says a second chance is possible. This year's edition showed how strong the community behind this project is. Thank you to everyone who runs with us -- the public, partners, volunteers and convicts alike,” he says Gabriela Slovakova, director of Yellow Ribbon Run, an important figure in Czech justice and initiator of the project in the Czech Republic, which celebrated her birthday as part of this jubilee year.

Patronage for the tenth edition of the Yellow Ribbon Run was granted by the Office of the President of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Justice and the Municipal District of Prague 6.

For the fourth time, philanthropist Jitka Chizzola supported the children of convicted parents with a sum of CZK 100,000.

‍

We greatly appreciate the support of our partners, without whom the 10th annual Yellow Ribbon Run could not have taken place. Thanks for being with us and helping us spread the idea of second chances.

We want the Yellow Ribbon Run to be better every year.

And right now you have a great opportunity to help us prepare.
Take a few minutes and fill out our short questionnaire. Any feedback is valuable to us.

Thank you so much for your time.

‍

We really got involved with the medals this year, from making them to handing them out. To those who were not reached, we apologise wholeheartedly. But we have good news, you won't lose them.

Na Okamih websitewho produces them for us, you can order them. When ordering enter the code YellowRibbon2025, thanks to it you will have both a medal and free shipping. Please enter the email under which you registered. Medals will come by Mail Order.

Thank you for your support.

The 10th annual Yellow Ribbon Run is already at the door. How to get to the event and where to park?

‍

PUBLIC TRANSPORT:

Obora Hvězda is easily accessible by trams 22 and 25, Obora Hvězda stop. Other nearby stops are “Petriny” or “Vypich. “

‍

Arrival by car and parking:

In the morning or in the morning you can come to the venue, where you need to unload everything necessary for your stand and its equipment. Subsequently, it is necessary to re-park the car because we are located in the residential zone of Prague 6 with limited parking possibilities. Park can be found in adjacent streets, on paid parking near Kaufland Vypich or free of charge at U Vojtěška 11, 162 01 Prague 6, in the Markéta area.

Don't miss the documentary about how running has changed the lives of three people with criminal pasts and how they prepare for our main race.

Thank you The Common Law Society for an invitation to a discussion meeting with students of the Faculty of Law in Prague. Gabriela Slováková shared her experience in the field of restorative justice, working with victims and perpetrators of criminal activity and presented current challenges in the system of alternative punishment.

The discussion was open, stimulating and, above all, full of interest in the change that the young generation can bring not only to justice but also to society as a whole.

Special thanks go to the students who decided to support the idea of a second chance and specifically the Yellow Ribbon Run campaign — they will be organizing a fundraising student run in support of it at the end of April.

‍

Yellow Ribbon Run se díky naší ambasadorce Báře Černoškové dostal až na televizní obrazovky. Bára projekt představila v oblíbené Show Jana Krause. Jak to vypadalo? Na to se můžete podívat tady ze záznamu.

Continuing to build a stable, efficient and high-quality Probation and Mediation Service requires long-term planning, investment in personnel and infrastructure, but above all creating an inclusive and supportive atmosphere for both staff and all those who use these services. Focusing on staff well-being, strengthening existing activities, developing program centers and homes, and supporting victims of crime are key to achieving lasting improvements in probation and mediation work. I am convinced that the Probation and Mediation Service is actively working on these topics, and I consider the role of the Director of the Service to be crucial for stabilizing the Service, but also for better communication with the political representation and professional and lay public about the importance and irreplaceability of the service in modern penal policy of the 21st century.

‍

More on the PMS website.

On Saturday, April 12, we attended a beautiful Children's Day at Rýnovice Prison. The latter has passed in cooperation with the non-profit organization VOLONTÉ CZECH represented Lukas Salivar and Tina Chlupáčová.

She was also in place our Veronika Friebová together with the patroness of children of imprisoned parents Barbora Černošková. A big thank you for organizing the event at Rýnovice Prison goes to educator Monica Winkler.

What did the place look like? You can do that read in the article directly on the VOLONTÉ CZECH website.

‍

My name is Miroslav Brázdil, I am forty-four years old, I have had years of drug addiction and crime. Life on the street, prison... Today I am trying to come to terms with my past, reintegrate into civil society, live a full life in accordance with the law, work, undergo therapy...

I was born in 1980 in Kroměříž and I spent my childhood in the small town of Kvasice in Kroměříž. The family situation was complicated. From various multiple marriages of both parents, I have five brothers and three sisters.

My mother left my father when I was a year and a half and as an only child I was left in the care of my father. He tried to start a new family, but after several unsuccessful attempts, all he had left was alcohol. Most often I was with my grandmother, who took care of me. She was physically disabled, a World War II war casualty. When I was ten years old, my father suffered a serious injury, stopped walking, and my grandmother had to take care of him as well. My father completely fell into alcoholism. and literally drank himself to death when I was twelve years old.

Mom was physically disabled from birth, lived in the same city, I had the opportunity to visit her, but the family situation was dismal. After the collapse of her second marriage, she found herself in poverty while raising my sister and two brothers.

I lived with my grandmother until she was 15, when she died. I should have switched to the care of my mother, but in reality I was already looking for ways from home away. I was only fourteen when I first went to Prague to experienced.

In Prague, I joined a party of children on the street, children running away from home or from institutions. We walked around the city and it was a great adventure. The first time I came into contact with drugs. At the age of fifteen, I left home permanently and went into hiding in Prague. A kid like that doesn't have a lot of options - crime, prostitution, drugs...

By about the age of eighteen, I was able to sail through, I got time abroad, experimented with hard drugs, committed petty crime. I couldn't see further back then until the next day, and even that was a very foggy outlook. At nineteen, on the street, homeless, addicted to injecting meth, I realized my life was badly screwed up. I found myself in a group of juvenile drug addicts stealing from department stores in Prague. But I was soon in real trouble with the law as a young adult.

I went to prison for the first time when I was 21 years old., the sentence was short - four months. Soon followed another, half a year, and a month after the release, again another half year. A spiral of property crime, recidivism and recidivism began to unravel.

I don't even know how I managed to keep in touch with my family, sometimes I visited my mother in Moravia, but the more difficult and complicated the life situation I caused myself, the less frequent my visits and contact with my family became. Until, perhaps, we disappeared from our sight for a few years. That's the thing I regret most, that we became so estranged that even that family wasn't the link between us.

I got into the gears of prison care and I have to admit that there were times when I was glad I ended up in prison, and not necessarily on pathology. It is true that as I write this story now, it is a very sad reading, but there were also bright moments and moments on which a new life could later begin to be built, and thanks to which it is possible to come face to face with the past today. I have heard many times from others or from fellow prisoners how proud they are of this or that, how proud they are of who they really are. For myself, I have to say that I belong to those who are less proud of themselves. On who I was and what I was doing.

But the fact that I'm writing this story today means that something had to happen, something in me had to change. I changed, something had to work and work, but it took many years.

‍

In 2018 I found myself in Vinařice Prison, I was thirty-eight years old. I was serving my sentence for perhaps the twelfth time. and I knew I'd have to sit hard for three years. But I still wanted to do something with my life.

‍I recall a conversation with the prison chaplain who asked me the last time I was happy. That thought kept coming back to me for a long time mainly because I didn't have an answer for it. I realized that I was not happy at all in my life and that was like a revelation.

I decided to get a job as an operator in prison and join the A-Giga s.r.o call center. I went through training and received a retraining certificate. After a year of working my way up among the ten most successful operators, I was approached, whether I am interested in the therapeutic community program KEMP in Vinarice.

This program is primarily intended for first-time convicts serving sentences, but I was given the opportunity. I realized it was a chance for change, a care I didn't have before, and basically a second chance. The biggest impression was left in me by special projects - GLM (Good Life Models), where we worked on the causes of our own crime, and Building Bridges, meeting offenders with victims of crime.

It all made a difference in my life, we had regular addictology care and we were dating the possibilities and ways in which the system helps people with an addiction problem and other...

‍

One of the most important programs for A-Giga employees is Accompaniment from the non-profit organization Šance PRO, a project that addresses social, family and work matters already during the execution of the sentence before release. But I wanted to start on my own. I saved twenty thousand in three years and thought that was a sufficient basis. I refused the help offered, a job and accommodation. I lied to myself, and somewhere hidden in my soul I already knew exactly where I would go with my money after my release, but I could not admit it to myself.

I still remember what, thank God, finally stuck in my memory, and that is Slogan of the program Accompaniment.

“When you make a mistake, come to us and admit it, and as long as you want to address the mistake, you will get help, if you don't lie and treat us like human beings, we will never turn our backs. ,,

With twenty thousand, I drove to Prague to the nearest drug dealer. After a few days I found myself in another city, sleeping in a tent by the river Elbe. Finally, with absolutely no means, I headed back to Prague, where a police patrol found me. It was discovered that I still have a valid ban on staying in Prague and then I spent five months in prison. My freedom and grand plans lasted exactly two months.

I realised I had to take an uncompromising stance. During those five months in prison, I negotiated admission to inpatient treatment of addiction in the Psychiatric Hospital in Horní Beřkovice and subsequent stay in the therapeutic community Kladno Dubí. I started communicating with A-Giga again and this time I kept it up.

Today I can say that I have had six months of hard dril in a medical institution, I quit smoking there after 30 years and started running instead. I went through a ten-month therapeutic program in the community of the Social Intervention Facility in Kladno Dubí. I have been working for A-Giga s.r.o for more than eight months, this time in civilian life, I got a more responsible job.

I am continuing in a post-treatment outpatient program, living in a sheltered apartment and preparing for an independent life. I have a permanent job, a great team of colleagues. We were participants in the Yellow Ribbon Run.

I am going through an important period of stabilization. I live under the rules of sheltered housing, I am in contact with my family, I pay off debts, I play sports. I respect the court-ordered ban on residence in Prague, which in the past has been the cause of several criminal prosecutions.

With prolonged abstinence and a proper life, the quality of life will increase. And that's probably what I'm experiencing - a higher quality of life. Improving relationships in the family, love and joint moments that we experience together again, as well as personal moments when I feel well, I used to say, so this is a touch of happiness...

There are a lot of things I can't really change, there's no turning back time. There are things I'm learning to live with. But today I have more options and some freedom to deal with my future.

And in conclusion, the most important thing is to be open to what life brings, while being firm in your attitude. What I know exactly is what happens if I fail. But the unknown that awaits me, I overcome it in myself, because that is the change. Change is possible! But it's not free.

‍

Written 8/2024

Today (2025) M. Brázdil is an employee of A-Giga in civilian life for 15 months.

‍