Partnership Finder

We aim to reduce reoffending through education. We deliver Middlesex University-accredited basic counselling skills courses and interpersonal communication skills courses to inmates and ex-offenders, as a first step towards rehabilitation and to reintroduce inmates to mainstream learning. We also run partners' sessions for inmates about to be released. Our community courses (Person to Person, learning to get on with the people you live and work with) are for those at risk of offending as well as ex-offenders.

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.

1. Education (anti-discrimination and arts development)
2. Professional artists (professional development)
3. Prisons (New Initiative) (Arts and personal development)

Kent Opera harnesses the power of drama and teamwork to help offenders shift their lives in a fresh direction. Several times a year we offer people who are looking for a new personal path the chance to work with a team of professional performers by taking part in an original piece of theatre – Hamlet in 45 Minutes, Half an Hour in the Tempest — which they help to devise and develop themselves.

Working together, they explore the themes and questions that challenge us all, collaborating to practice the techniques of self-projection, body language, and the principles of operating in a dramatic team: learning their lines, accepting feedback, and showing up on time for the sake of the group.

By experiencing the challenges and inspiration of creative performance they can start to apply those principles to their own lives, practicing — and hopefully developing — the flexibility, determination and positive mindset that we all need to put on a good show.

Medway Mediation empowers people to resolve conflicts through mediation and restorative justice, additionally delivering anger management coaching, family mediation for divorcing and separating couples, and family group-conferencing. The organisation also provides training in mediation, restorative interventions, anger management coaching, peer mediation and peer mentoring.

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.

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.

The RFEA's simple aim, since 1885, has been to help those leaving and those who have left the Armed Forces to find and to remain in employment throughout their working lives. We aim to make the client 'Job Ready' by signposting them to bespoke support required using our Nova Network of support and tracking this via our Nova Support team prior to finding them the right employment choice.
Project Nova is an early intervention scheme working in conjunction mainly with the Police and NHS dealing with Ex Military personnel who have been arrested or are on the periphery of doing so. Project Nova works with many partner organisations including HMPPS & CRCs and local authorities along with numerous military charities.

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.

160,000 children each year have a parent in prison. At Spurgeons, our aim is to improve the lives of those children and their families who are affected by a parent being in prison. Our prisoner and family support services across England allow children to visit their loved ones in a friendly environment and our mentoring and support programmes give young people the change to reduce negative behaviours and build a better future.
We work in the heart of communities, delivering a range of high quality, flexible services for those affected by imprisonment and offending. These include; running Prison Visitors’ Centres; mentoring - pre and post release; family days; parenting Programmes in prisons; Family Support Programmes for offenders and their families; through the gate support and family re-integration; community support services for families of offenders; and training for partner organisations.

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.

We are Forward, the social enterprise that empowers people to break the cycle of crime or addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community.

We’re a national charity that wants to bring about a reading revolution so that everyone can experience and enjoy great literature, which we believe is a tool for helping humans survive and live well.

Through a growing movement of 1,000 volunteers and partners across different sectors, we currently bring over 2,500 people together each week to share and discuss great novels, plays and poems. We call this Shared Reading.

By reading with families, adults, looked after children, older people in care, adults with physical and/or mental health conditions, people coping with addiction and individuals in the criminal justice system, our work is helping to improve wellbeing, reduce isolation and build stronger communities.

Currently working in 35 prisons and approved premises, we reach 650 people each week:
77% report improved wellbeing
67% report improved confidence
64% say Shared Reading helps them understand themselves better and connect to others in a deeper way