Directory

The Men’s Room is an arts and social care agency that works creatively with young men, offering them opportunities to get involved in arts projects whilst accessing support for challenges they may be facing in their lives. The project engages different constituencies of young men experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage, including those involved with sex work or with experience of sexual exploitation, and those with experience of homelessness and/or the criminal justice system, mental health problems, and issues around drug and alcohol misuse. Working with artists to create a diverse range of projects throughout the year, the Men’s Room also offers a weekly drop in, outreach services and personalised support.

We have a small team running Christian programmes and outreach in prisons and young offender institutions across England and Wales. We provide through the gate mentoring support and links into local churches for those that want it. In addition, the organisation runs a network of community teams, community groceries, training programmes, schools work and a number of businesses which are set up to provide training and employment to those who may struggle for work due to their history.

We’re a networking centre seeking to raise awareness of restorative practice and to promote collaboration among practitioners and restorative justice supporters.

We run events and training to further knowledge and understanding of restorative approaches and their uses in a variety of settings.

The Nehemiah Project works with men with a history of addiction who are determined to transform their lives. We particularly offer support to ex-offenders who have had a serious addiction but are now abstinent. We offer a 12 week programme that bridges the gap between release and the community. Over 80% of our men come directly from prison. The supportive environment in our first house allows them to become independent and self-sufficient. When they have completed our CBT-based programme, or when they are ready, they move onto one of our move-on houses, where they can stay for up to a year. We have two first stage houses, one in Streatham and one in Croydon and both run our recovery programme three times a year. Nehemiah houses offer a homely, supportive environment and encourage our Residents to join in community activities or volunteering to assist with their recovery. We also have a Family Worker who helps reconcile men who are estranged from their families.

The Nelson Trust provides Women's Centre services to women experiencing multiple, complex needs which may include repeated involvement with the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Our mission is to champion trauma-informed approaches to address the root causes of substance misuse, violence, abuse, deprivation and poverty. Our comprehensive services are based at our Women’s Community Centres in Gloucester, Swindon, Somerset, Bristol and Wales. The gender-specific services we offer address needs across the Nine Pathways that lead to offending (including housing, health, substance misuse, employment, and family breakdown), and divert women away from the CJS. The Trust was established in 1985, and our women’s services were informed by our abstinent-based residential rehabilitation programme in Gloucestershire. We work with women across Gloucestershire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Avon and Somerset and Wales to reduce re-offending and support women to achieve sustained, positive changes in their lives.

We provide a clear route to employment and education for ex-offenders looking to make positive changes to their lives. Using our own valuable Criminal justice experience which we feel gives us credibility when dealing with this marginalised group, we build empathic relationships with men and women in custody, training them in employment related skills such as communication, conflict resolution, expectations -skills which are transferable throughout the rest of their lives. We do this in partnership with an adult education provider and are able to offer levels 1 & 2 prior to release giving us an engagement tool.
Together we create an action plan for release setting clear goals and actions on how to get there. We provide through-the-gate support and aim to tackle various issues prior to getting them into more education, training and eventually employment with one of our growing numbers of offender-friendly employers or one of our micro businesses to incubate, improving skills

Safe Choices Provides intensive support and structured group work programmes to young women who may be experiencing, or are at risk of: sexual violence, sexual exploitation, gang involvement or gang association, and /or involvement in offending. Safe Choices offers advocacy and access to positive activities, and also delivers training for professionals working with young women

We are a long-established charity, started 20 years ago. We principally work with young people to educate and inform them about the dangers of criminal behaviour and stage multi-agency crime and safety awareness days in secondary schools.
We also take offenders, released on licence to these days and have employed offenders and ex-offenders to deliver workshops in schools which has given them a purpose in life and assisted with their rehabilitation.

Creating second chances through training, support and employment in order to break the cycle of re-offending.
The Project supports ex-offenders in North East England, by sourcing paid employment and apprenticeship opportunities. To ensure that clients receive the maximum benefit from their placements, the Oswin Project also supports its clients with mentoring and supervision. By the end of the client’s apprenticeship period, which could be up to two years, they should have an excellent chance of securing long term employment.

For over 40 years, The Prince’s Trust has been working with disadvantaged young people, aged 13-30. We help them develop the skills and motivation to re-engage with society, secure employment, return to education, gain qualifications, and ultimately, become economically active.

Our programmes offer personal development opportunities that bring tangible and lasting benefits to both the young people we support, and the communities in which they live. We provide quality services that deliver the best possible outcomes to those who need it most. Within our core target group are those who are:
- Unemployed, particularly those out of work for six months or more.
- Educational underachievers, including those who have been excluded from school or are at risk of being excluded.
- Those facing complex barriers to work and education such as offenders/ex-offenders, those with mental health issues, lone parents, those in or leaving-care or disabled young people.

The Pythian Club have a team of volunteers who have been receiving referrals from the City's Golden Ticket scheme. Gedling Borough Council, The Toy Library Scheme and Nottinghamshire County Council, they have been picking up and delivering prescriptions, doing shopping and delivering food to vulnerable people and low income families who are struggling with buying the essentials. We have also been doing telephone welfare checks on vulnerable and isolated people.

We have been given funding to provide children and families with physical equipment, arts and crafts materials, books etc and we have been delivering these around Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. This has been warmly welcomed by local communities

We are working with local Housing Associations and other organisations in putting together packs to be distributed to local people; especially those with children, which include items to help them stay active.

We run sports, music and dance sessions for the community too.

Established in 1981, The Rainbow Project is a charity providing a range of services to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in and around Southampton.

Rainbow currently provides:
A mentoring service called Moving 4ward and in July 2012 launched a new Life Chances supported employment service.

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

The Reasons Why Foundation provides a Behavioural Change Mentoring service to people with criminal convictions across the London region.
Our individualised support packages, empower our service users to achieve their potential and lead positive and productive lives. We help our mentees to find employment, apprenticeships, training and education.
We look at the causes and effects of attitude, behaviour and actions, highlighting potential areas of harmful/negative impact on their development. We look for the Reasons Why people offend and help them to find their own alternatives which do not carry negative outcomes with them.
We offer people the opportunity to share their own thoughts, beliefs and experiences in a safe environment, in complete confidence where they know they are being listened to and actually heard. This is a vital component.

The Recruitment Junction is a recruitment agency for ex-offenders. We are a not-for-profit enterprise with a social heart, on a commercial mission. Our vision is to see people with convictions rediscover a sense of purpose through employment and become role models who drive positive generational impact across their families.

The Restore Trust believe in a fair society where socially excluded people are supported to obtain skills, qualifications and employment to build sustainable, independent lives contributing positively to society.
At its foundation, The Restore Trust was set up in 2009 by the current CEO Suzanne Thompson and SMT board of Avon & Somerset Probation Trust, in conjunction with the National Offender Management Service. The organisation was registered as an independent VCSE in 2010 and is managed by an excellent board of trustees. Whilst the organisation retains a specialism in working with people with complex needs and criminal convictions, it can work with anyone in the community who is experiencing barriers in accessing training and employment.
Many of our clients have complex needs in relation to homelessness, mental health problems, drug/alcohol dependency and offending behaviour. We pride ourselves on our non-judgemental, person-centred approach in our work.

The aim of The Riverside Group is to transform lives and revitalise neighbourhoods. We view support in an integrated way across the services that provide the support people who are homeless need. People who are homeless often have complex needs crossing mental health, substance misuse, criminal justice and social care responsibilities. We will not stop people falling through the gaps into homelessness if we continue to only meet these needs through homeless specific services.

Our work in the criminal justice context focuses on training and consultancy for staff in the management of individuals that are deaf or hard of hearing. One in six people in the population has a hearing loss of some degree, creating communication barriers that can impact on behaviour, well-being and, at the profound end of the spectrum, access to rehabilitative services.

Action on Hearing Loss offer Deaf Awareness and Sign Language training courses to help prison or probation staff understand the needs of people with hearing loss. We provide professional communication support of all kinds - from sign language interpreters to notetakers - to enable access to service. Our products (assistive listening devices and alerters of all kinds) are available online or in bulk from a dedicated account manager. We also provide work based assessments for staff themselves, with cost-effective recommendations for reasonable adjustments to support them in the workplace.

Qualifications, achievement and progress are often only conventionally recognised. The Safe House supports people to do well, even if they are not ‘conventional’ themselves. The Safe House mission is to bring particular and specialist experience and expertise to supporting people who are disadvantaged by the demands of attending school, college or university and in achieving recognised qualifications.

Activity at The Safe House focuses on:

- advice and guidance for study, employment and empowerment.
- language, literacy and learning support.
- creative writing support.
- personal presentation skills development.
- stress-relief based therapy and counselling.
- teacher / facilitator workshops.
- books and online resources and opportunities.
- creative and innovative project development and delivery.

The Safety Box ® CIC programs are a refined system of training and development in helping young people and young adults develop important skills such as leadership, communication, team working, presentation, high risk conflict resolution, violence reduction, personal development and problem solving. We recognise that these are some of the essential keys to success. They open doors to learning, to life in addition to work. They are a platform on which to build employability skills and the gateway to future well-being and prosperity. The Safety Box employs an evidence-based model, proven to reduce violence in different cultural contexts. As an organisation we work with Prisons, YOIs, Pru's, Colleges and Schools prodomenently in the South East of England but have done work overseas, we aim to reduce violence and empower young people and adults through personal development and holistic transformational methodologies.