A serving prisoner is to set out on a 50-mile walk accompanied by a Church of England bishop and a prison governor.
The event is to mark the appointment of a new community chaplain to help prisoners during the period when they are released from custody and trying to settle back into normal life.
Steve Vincent, who previously had a post providing housing assistance to people with drug and alcohol problems, has taken up the role in a bid to help cut rising rates of re-offending in Staffordshire.
Also taking part in the walk, from Shrewsbury Prison to Stoke-on-Trent, are the Shrewsbury Prison chaplain, the Rev David Farley, Lichfield diocese's social responsibility officer, Vanessa Geffen, Stokeon-Trent vicar the Rev Martin Walker and a prisoner nearing release.
The group will visit four villages en route to explain the project and will be joined for part of the walk by Michael Bolton, governor of Featherstone jail in Staffordshire, and the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Stafford.
The North Staffordshire Community Chaplaincy is a project of the Mercian Trust, a charity associated with the Diocese of Lichfield.
It is working in partnership with the Prison Service, Staffordshire Youth Offending Service, and the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at the University of Central England.
The project has been designed to curb re-offending in Stoke, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands.
The rates of re-offending and re-committal to prison within two years of discharge are increasing nationally.
In an attempt to break this cycle, the Church of England, working with the criminal justice system, has appointed Mr Vincent.
Mr Vincent said: "This is a real chance to empower ex-offenders to break their offending behaviour by improving quality of life and establishing stable homes.
"The first people to benefit from the scheme will be prisoners from HMP Shrewsbury, where 70 per cent of the 350 prisoners come from the North Staffordshire area."
