Partnership Finder

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.

Develop was established in 1996, as a company limited by guarantee and a not for profit organisation. The organisation provides a quality innovative service to employers, schools, colleges, communities and volunteers who need help, support, information, advice and guidance.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between individuals, learning organisations and businesses to enhance employability skills and develop potential. We aim to offer access of opportunity to all those individuals we work with and support them to achieve their goals. Develop are currently funded via the National Careers Service, Careers Inspiration in Custody contract to deliver a range of activities in custody. This includes providing employer-led events for HMP Leicester, Bedford and Woodhill and ex offender alumni sessions in prisons across the East Midlands and Central Eastern Region.In addition we also provide Study Programme and Adult provision to all, including ex-offenders

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.

Pact is a national charity that provides support to prisoners, people with convictions and their families. We support people to make a fresh start, and minimise the harm that can be caused by imprisonment to people with convictions, to families and to communities.

Pact works in over 65 prisons and 8 CRCs and provides prison-based family engagement workers, Visitors’ Centres, visitor support, supervised play, catering and family activities, relationship and parenting education programmes, court and community family support, ‘Through the Gate’ family resettlement support and community based mentoring and befriending programmes.

We also run the HMPPS contracted national Prisoners' Families Helpline which can be reached seven days a week on 0808 808 2003.

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.

The PPT supports prisoners, ex-prisoners and prison staff in their spiritual lives through meditation, yoga, silence and the breath. We recommend breath-focussed stretches and meditation sensitively tailored to students' needs. To this end, we send free books and a CD to prisoners so they can start a practice in their cell, we have a team of specially trained volunteer letter writers who correspond with prisoners who want support in their practice; we offer taster workshops so prisons can judge if they want to include weekly yoga classes as part of their regimes; and we train qualified yoga teachers for the specific challenges of working in prison.

There are currently 143 weekly yoga and meditation classes in 75 institutions across the UK and Ireland. Most of these are prisons, though we also work in approved premises, IRCs and secure hospitals. 32 of these classes are for prison officers and staff.

We maintain contact with over 5,766 prisoners in 223 institutions.

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.

Restorative Solutions is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) committed to enabling the use of innovative restorative approaches as a practical and cost-effective intervention for reducing harm or conflict.
We introduce restorative practices to organisations, volunteers and front line workers who are looking for a proven and worthwhile alternative to existing conventional approaches to reducing conflict, disputes, anti-social behaviour, bullying, crime and re-offending. We deliver bespoke Restorative Justice services to organisations.

Rideout specialises in the development and delivery of a range of innovative arts-based programmes and projects within the Criminal Justice System.

Safe Ground works to reduce the risk of offending and reoffending based on a continually developing understanding of the origins and impact of crime and a commitment to empowering people to change.

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.

St Giles Trust aims to help break the cycle of prison, crime and disadvantage and create safer communities by supporting people to change their lives. Our services put reformed ex-offenders at the heart of the solution, training them to use their skills and first-hand experience to help others through peer-led support.
We work in custody, through the gate and into the community, finding solutions to support offenders break the cycle and move towards social inclusion and mainstream provision. Services are delivered in prisons and CRCs throughout the country, with current programmes running in Wales, Yorkshire, the Midlands, Norfolk, Suffolk, London and the South East. We work with a wide demographic and have specific experience with particular groups including female offenders, BAME, young people and foreign national prisoners.
We provide flexible, tailor-made services which are driven by the needs presented by the people we are trying to help. Typically, this involves: helping people with and into accommodation; accessing other services to address needs such as health, substance misuse, benefits and education; improving soft skills; and providing interventions designed to increase readiness for work. We also deliver NVQL3 IAG to peer advisors in prisons.
This range of services help the 24,000 clients we work with each year overcome any barriers which might be holding them back from moving their lives forward in a positive way.

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.