Partnership Finder

People can change their own lives, take a positive approach to the challenges they’re facing and come up with their own solutions. Coaching Inside and Out’s coaches help clients do that using the same approach as top leaders and performers.

The charity challenges and supports men, women and children in prison and the community through coaching.

CIAO’s coaches ask questions to support and challenge clients’ to understand themselves better, so they can find their own answers and help both themselves and others. By building up people’s inner resources they can find and make the most of external resources after coaching ends.

CIAO has a flexible commissioner and client-led model tailored to each service, not an off-the-shelf programme. Group sessions and drop in services are all possibilities, as well as individual coaching.

Criminon UK is a registered charity delivering distance learning life skills courses in many UK prisons. We are members of LASER Learning Awards (formerly the Open College Network South East Region), and have four courses accredited. Our accredited course "Understanding and Overcoming Addiction", aligns with learning outcomes of the NOCN National Qualification Unit's 'Introduction to Drug Awareness', Level 1. Our other accredited courses deal with literacy at Entry Level 2 and Level 1 and a simple guide to better living and self-respect at Entry Level 2. Further life skills courses we offer deal with Parenting, Communication and Personal Integrity. We also offer a Mentor Course which gives the offender the skills to help others with their literacy and allows them to give something back, helping them achieve greater confidence and self-respect.

Fine Cell Work trains and pays prisoners to do craftwork in their cells to encourage motivation, improve mental health and build employability skills. FCW is geared to long-term, male and female, high risk offenders who stay on the programme for 2 to 10 years. Our goal is to enable prisoners to gain social and employment skills so they can desist from re-offending in the future. Prisoners on the programme work for 20-40 hours a week in their cells.

We have a workforce of approximately 250 prisoners across 30 prisons. The apprenticeship training is done by 50 skilled volunteers. The prisoners make hand-embroidered quilts, cushions, clothes, rugs and furniture covers which are sold internationally and to museums and designers.

Our aim is to enable prisoners to gain motivation and “work-readiness” by doing cellwork and to follow on with further employment preparation in workshops where they can do accredited training in soft furnishings, machine embroidery and upholstery.

Geese Theatre Company is a team of professional theatre practitioners who present interactive drama and facilitate workshops, staff training and consultation in prisons, secure mental health settings, young offender institutions, and in the community with probation services, youth offending teams and related agencies. A registered charity based in Birmingham, Geese works throughout the UK and overseas and has gained an international reputation for innovative work with vulnerable and socially excluded groups, becoming widely acknowledged as one of the key organisations championing the role of arts in the criminal justice system and wider social welfare arena. Our work provides solutions to a range of criminogenic issues, primarily focussing on attitudes, thinking and behaviour and addressing themes such as domestic abuse, sexual offending, violence, resettlement, substance misuse and offending, self-efficacy, and employability.

Good Vibrations runs gamelan (Indonesian bronze percussion) courses, in prisons and secure hospitals and with offenders and ex-offenders in the community, helping people develop crucial life- and work-skills such as communication, teamworking, creative thinking and concentration. Participants are then also more motivated to engage in other constructive activities.

We work to organise a network of pastoral support for Muslim Chaplains and staff; to prepare, produce and recommend teaching materials and accredited courses; to provide mentoring and job shadowing services for Muslim Chaplains; and to engage the communities for the resettlement of prisoners and help to reduce reoffending. We also raise funds in order to pursue the MCA's activities.

No Offence! facilitates open access to and exchange of crime and justice information, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

No Offence! is a social enterprise, community interest company, not driven by private profit.

Our innovative and engaging approach facilitates the sharing of this information by instigating, supporting and encouraging communication and debate, which promotes wider understanding of complex criminal justice issues across society. By challenging barriers to positive change and influencing future policy, our objective is simple: to make a difference.

We have created a criminal justice information exchange service, which has become a centre for excellence, for the significant benefit of all who engage within the criminal justice sector.

POPS is a user-led charity supporting families through their contact with the criminal justice system as a result of a loved one’s conviction. POPS focuses on strengthening relationships within families and between families and their communities. We aim to help individuals overcome stigma, understand their identity, build self-confidence/skills and contribute to a more cohesive society.
We achieve this through a range of prison-based and community focused support services including: Family Support Services delivered at 11 prisons across the North-West/Yorkshire; ‘Through the Gate’ support for prisoners and their families; community-based support for women through POPS’ Women’s Centre (Oldham); community-based interventions for prisoners from BAME backgrounds; training for professionals; restorative practice programmes and community-based support for families attached to the CRC’s Intensive Community Order (generating £6.52 of economic/social value for every £1 spent).

Prison Fellowship aims to support prisoners by coming alongside them and supporting them through practical programmes and prayer.

We seek to help, support and develop a Christian ministry to prisoners through Sycamore Tree, our victim awareness programme; Angel Tree, where we support prisoner's children at Christmas; Letter Writing and other practical support through chaplaincy.

We do this through our network of volunteer members, and currently have over 1,800 members across England and Wales.

We make it possible for volunteers in the community to write letters to prisoners, and to receive letters in return, and to do so in safety.

The Prisoners' Advice Service provides free legal advice and representation to adult prisoners in England and Wales regarding their rights, and regardless of the individual prisoners' means. PAS aims to educate and empower prisoners regarding the law and their legal and human rights.

REACH INSIDE is a charity that has been set up to help friends and family members of prisoners to REACH INSIDE and communicate easily with their loved ones.
Our POST–2–PRISON project allows anyone with online access to send a photo and a message to any UK prisoner completely free of charge.
All you need to do is visit our website (its mobile friendly too) and send your message, we will then print it and post it directly into prison.

Samaritans provides confidential emotional support to prisoners, either by telephone or face-to-face. The organisation also selects, trains and supports prisoners, known as Listeners, to offer confidential, emotional support to their fellow-inmates.

Shannon Trust runs the Shannon Trust Reading Plan, an award-winning peer mentoring programme which encourages and supports prisoners who can read to give one-to-one tuition to help non-reading prisoners learn to read.

Established in 2000, Synergy Theatre Project works with prisoners, ex-prisoners and young people at risk, towards rehabilitation, through theatre and related activities, while placing the wider issues surrounding criminal justice in the public arena.

The Calico Group is a group of innovative charities and businesses aimed at making a real difference to people's lives. We deliver services in the health, care & support, employability & skills, housing and construction & regeneration sectors. In terms of criminal justice, our services include: drug & alcohol service in HMP Manchester and HMP Buckley Hall; supported housing for ex-offenders in Manchester, Rochdale and East Lancs; refuge for homeless people with complex needs; traditional and complex needs domestic violence refuges and safe houses; domestic violence perpetrator programmes; behavioural change programmes aimed at criminal behaviours; community substance misuse services in Blackpool (Horizon) and Manchester; promote lived-experience volunteer and peer support throughout our services. More widely, we are an RSL with 4,500 properties and provide a wide-range of care and support services to vulnerable people in our communities.

Unlock is an independent award-winning national charity that provides a voice and support for people with convictions who are facing stigma and obstacles because of their criminal record, often long after they have served their sentence.

Firstly, we help people. We provide information, advice and support to people with convictions, including running an information site and confidential peer-run helpline. We help practitioners support people with convictions by providing criminal record disclosure training. And we support employers and universities in treating people with criminal records fairly.

Secondly, we advocate for change, working at policy level to address systemic and structural issues. We listen to and consult with people with criminal records, undertake research and produce evidence-based reports to inform policy makers and the public. We challenge bad practice, influence attitudes and speak truth to power. We co-founded and support the Ban the Box campaign.