Directory

A Way Out is an organisation of excellence, tackling and preventing exploitation of vulnerability of women and young people.

We are an outreach and prevention charity which aims to engage, empower and equip vulnerable and excluded women, families and young people to live lives free from harm, abuse and exploitation and to reduce life limiting choices and behaviour.

Our service users include women and young people with substance misuse problems, involved in prostitution, homeless or living on the streets, often engaged in offending or victims of abuse.

A Way Out is based in Stockton on Tees at a support centre called The Gate. This centre provides the base for many of our projects, offering a safe and secure place for women to come and receive support and get involved in a whole range of activities.

We draw on the power of Anne Frank's life and diary to challenge prejudice and reduce hatred, encouraging people to embrace positive attitudes, responsibility and respect for others. The Anne Frank Prison Project was founded in 2002 in response to growing concern about racism and prejudice in prisons.

We collect books from publishers, libraries, shops and individuals, sort and stamp them and redistribute them free of charge to organizations working with homeless people, prisons, offenders and ex-offenders, womens refuges, refugees,asylum applicants and others with limited funds. We want to see more Borderline Books groups in other locations - it is an excellent project for ex-offenders to run. We can offer an 'office in a box', plus initial supply of books and a wealth of experience. The project is very flexible and could be combined with literacy classes or writing groups as well as giving useful job-training skills. We sometimes have to turn down book donations as we don't have funds to bring them up to Gateshead so local editions would be great.

We are particularly interested in working with more prisons. Do get in contact.
We are also providing free books to custody suites in the North East. Enquiries welcome.

We are a project of the Kittiwake Trust charity number 1165318

English PEN believes in safeguarding the freedom to read and write. Its Readers and Writers programme brings writers and books into closed and neglected communities in particular prisons. We work in partnership with education, libraries and writers in residence.

Finchale Training College is a unique specialist provider of vocational training programmes for unemployed disabled adults. Based in Durham for 60 years, it trains 200 students for work ranging from accountancy to woodcrafts. 75% of its students are local, 25% are national. Courses are funded by the Department for Work & Pensions.

We provide housing support and complementary services to adult and young offenders, having developed specialist support services for MAPPA offenders, domestic violence perpetrators, PPOs, etc. to reduce reoffending. We provide peer mentors to work with offenders, and aim to provide employment opportunities for our customers within our services.

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.

Junction 42 is an established charity providing education and enterprise, creative arts and Christian faith support to offenders both in custody and in the community. This support focuses on reducing social isolation, building community, addressing chaotic lifestyles and removing barriers to employment and family stability. We work with a large number of offenders, ex-offenders and other young people, (including dedicated women’s services) who face serious lifestyle stability issues and significant barriers to employability.

Nepacs is a north of England charity which aims to promote a positive future for people who have been affected by adverse situations in their lives. They work with families, young people and children, as well as those affected by the criminal justice or care systems.
In the north east of England Nepacs staff and volunteers offer a range of services including prison visitors' centres and tea bars, play sessions for prisoners' children, youth projects, specialist family support, parenting and relationship programmes and support within the Teesside courts, Newcastle and Durham Crown Courts. In our visitors centres our teams support first time visitors and our departure lounges help prisoners and their families to prepare for release.
Nepacs also offers training for individuals working with children or families inc Hidden Sentence training or awareness sessions, care leaver awareness and parental rights training etc

The Oasis Aquila Mentoring Project offers intensive support for up to two years to people - male and female, aged 18+ years - who have had a custodial sentence and will be released into the Tyne and Wear community.

Pact is a pioneering national charity that supports prisoners, people with convictions, and their children and families. We provide caring and life-changing services at every stage of the criminal justice process: in court, in prison, on release, and in the community, based on a public health model of practice.

We work in more than 60 prisons and provide prison-based family engagement and social workers, Visitors’ Centres, visitor support, supervised play, catering, family activities, relationship and parenting education programmes, court and community family support, resettlement support and community-based mentoring and befriending programmes. Our volunteers and staff can be found in courts, prisons, probation services, and in communities across England & Wales.

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

Our mission is to show Christ’s love to people in prison by coming alongside them and supporting them. We seek, through prayer and practical care, to help, support and develop a Christian ministry to people in prison and their families.

We do this through our network of over 2,500 volunteers. We are currently ministering in almost all of the 120 prisons in England and Wales.

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.

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 Irene Taylor Trust 'Music in Prisons' delivers creative music projects which focus on the creation of new and innovative music. Projects are accessible to everyone regardless of musical experience, and aim to raise the self-confidence and aspirations of men, women and young people in prisons and those in the community who may be at risk of coming into contact with the criminal justice system.

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

Women in Prison is a national charity, dedicated to making a difference to the lives of women affected by the criminal justice system by providing holistic, women-centred support in prisons and the community in order to enable them to meet their resettlement needs and reduce the risk of re-offending. We also educate the public and policy makers about women in contact with the criminal justice system, to promote alternatives to custody and provide a voice for women’s experiences.