Building successful partnerships involving volunteers in the criminal justice system: a good practice guide

This guide highlights good practice in effective cross sector partnerships working in several European countries. It is an outcome of the JIVE project, a two-year project that aims to exchange ideas and share good practice on volunteering within the criminal justice system (CJS) between European member states.

For countries with limited experience of working with volunteers in the CJS, but who are establishing a partnership opportunity, this guide intends to provide useful guidance for setting up effective partnerships. For those organisations that already have an established partnership, this guide hopes to stimulate mutual respect and understanding and help address any power imbalance evident within partnerships.

The information in this guide has been collected by means of interviews with organisations already working within volunteer involving partnerships across the CJS. It is aimed at practitioners and is based on practical experience and knowledge.

As part of the research interviews were conducted in order to identify examples of good practice in dealing with the challenges that these cross sector partnerships involving volunteers system face. These interviews with staff members of volunteer involving organisations, prisons and their representatives have helped identify examples of good practice and have been divided into four categories:

1.    Establishing a partnership
2.    Organising funding
3.    Organising co-operation
4.    Monitoring