The newsletter for arts organisations working in criminal justice.
In this month's issue...
Applications open for mentoring scheme 2023
The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) is now inviting applications for its 2023-2024 mentoring scheme. The scheme provides emerging arts and criminal justice practitioners with specialist guidance and professional development through a free one-to-one mentoring relationship with an expert in the field. For mentors, it provides the chance to give back to the arts and criminal justice sector by sharing knowledge and supporting those early in their career with professional development.
Building on our years of experience delivering a mentoring scheme, the 2023-24 mentors and mentees will be invited to collaborate collectively with other mentoring pairs as well as alumni from our scheme to share skills and experiences. This additional offer will be built into the programme spanning from August 2023 to February 2024.
The application deadline for both mentors and mentees is 6pm,14 August 2023. Find out more and apply here
Could you be our next Clinks Fundraising Officer?
Clinks is recruiting a Fundraising Officer to help support and maintain Clinks’ healthy income stream and ensure that we secure appropriate income to remain independent and impartial as we grow, progress and develop infrastructure support for criminal justice charities. This role will involve working with colleagues across all of Clinks including the NCJAA to help support and maintain Clinks’ healthy income stream as we grow, progress and develop infrastructure support for criminal justice charities. Read more about this opportunity via the Clinks website
Clinks is hiring for a Policy and Communications Officer
Clinks has a new and exciting opportunity available for you to join as the Policy and Communications Officer. The Policy and Communications Officer will be part of the Policy and Communications team. You will help support the delivery of core policy functions. This role will involve working with colleagues across all of Clinks including the NCJAA.
Responsibilities include identifying new government initiatives and policy relating to criminal justice and the voluntary sector in England and Wales, conducting desk-based research, supporting the development and operation of the policy focussed groups, networks and structures which Clinks facilitates and producing documents and briefings as part of a team. You will also be responsible for Clinks’ social media presence, planning and coordinating e-communications and website content, and provide support to Clinks’ staff in the writing and production of publications. Read more about this opportunity via the Clinks website
Welcoming Angela Lucas as Head of Support and Development at Clinks
Earlier this month Clinks welcomed Angela Lucas into her new role as Head of Support and Development. Ang has been with Clinks for a number of years, and has worked with NCJAA staff past and present throughout her time as Head of Area Development. The NCJAA is embedded in Clinks alongside other thematic networks including the Clinks Women’s Network and Clinks Race and Justice Network and the Voluntary Sector Coordinator at HMP Isis. Also part of our Support and Development team at Clinks are the Membership, Events and Sector Support team and our Area Development team who work in Wales, North of England and London. Find out more about our team
State of the sector research
2023 survey is now live! Respond by Monday 7 August
We are calling on all arts specialist individuals and organisations working in criminal justice to complete the 2023 State of the sector survey. This is your chance to tell us about the challenges your organisation has faced over the last year and help us influence key decision makers on your behalf and ensure that our support meets your needs. We regularly meet with HM Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice to speak up on behalf of artists and arts organisations in the criminal justice voluntary sector, but we need up-to-date evidence to do this effectively. That is why we are asking you to complete the survey. Your anonymised responses will contribute to a report highlighting the changes and challenges the voluntary sector, and its service users, are experiencing and how organisations are adapting.
As part of this year’s State of the sector research, the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) have helped shape the survey to provide opportunity for individuals and organisations in the arts and criminal justice sector to have their voices heard. Survey findings will be reported on in the coming months with plans to create a mini-report focussing specifically on the input from arts sector professionals both as independent artists and practitioners, and staff or trustee representatives of organisations in our network. We are really keen to hear from individual arts practitioners, so don't delay; complete the survey today! Read Clinks’ blog on why your responses are so crucial here and complete the survey here.
Cross-cultural arts practice with young people
14 September | Newcastle | free
The NCJAA is working alongside our Clinks Area Development Officer for the North to bring you an exciting event to bring together organisations working, or with an interest in, working with young people in criminal justice through the arts or other ways.
The NCJAA arts and criminal justice forums are typically online events themed around important ideas and relevant developments in criminal justice. We are excited to meet in person this September and gather as a network around the theme of working creatively with young people in a criminal justice context. You will have the chance to hear from expert speakers in both practice and research, meet others working in the field, and share good practice within the network. It will create a space to step away from the day job and provide an opportunity to share good practice, strengthen partnership working, and discuss any opportunities or challenges your organisation may be currently facing.
This event is co-delivered in partnership with Northumbria University who will be sharing their latest findings following the publication of The stolen generations case study via the NCJAA website last year. Book now
Caring for the Caretakers: Working with women in criminal justice
Save the date| 13 October | Hampshire
In October we will be sharing our forum platform with our Clinks Women’s Network Coordinator and NCJAA partners Bearface Theatre for an in person event. The day will bring together practitioners and strategic leaders in the voluntary sector, statutory agencies and local creative organisations, with a focus on women/people who are working with women in the criminal justice system - specifically in and around Hampshire. More information including how to register to attend will be shared in due course.
New Starts and Prison Arts Symposium
28 September | Liverpool | £5
Liverpool Hope University, Novus and TATE Liverpool invite you to ‘New Starts and Prison Arts’, a day's event on the very latest progressive education practices in prison arts in the UK. The day will consist of keynote addresses from leading professors in academia, hands-on practical workshops for new ideas for prison arts from those working in prison education and the establishment of a practice forum for prison arts for the UK. Read more
Course: The Lens of Lived Experience (virtual)
11 September – 16 October | online | £210
What is lived experience? What is the value of communicating what it feels like to experience something? Photographer and creative facilitator, Daniel Regan, explores these questions and more in this series of informative and collaborative sessions. Participants will be supported to produce photographs that explore the complexity of their own lived experiences, whilst learning about other photographers who explore illness, disability and lived experience, as well as practical support from both Daniel and other peers in the group. This course is ideal for people who already have a grasp of the technical aspect of photography and their style and are ready to seek support in:
- Understanding what their lived experiences mean to them, and how they would like to work with them through photography. This includes developing their ideas around how to visualise elements of their lived experiences, whether that be illness, particular elements of their identity or experiences of trauma.
- Pushing the boundaries of their practice by actively trying new ideas and receiving peer to peer feedback in sessions.
Save the date: Inspiring Futures Conference: Friday 29 September, at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge
HMPPS Innovation Grant Programme 2023 – 2025
Application closing date - 4 August 2023, 11:59pm
The HMPPS Innovation Grants programme is looking to provide grant funding to support initiatives aimed at improving the lives of people in our care through effective rehabilitation and reducing re-offending. This scheme is designed to fund new methodologies, test ideas and establish good practice with the potential to be replicated and implemented across the estate, in custody and/or in the community. To be eligible for this grant applicants should be a registered charity or social enterprise. Read more
Professional Art Writing Development Scheme for underrepresented writers
Application closing date - 4 August 2023
The Fourdrinier online art journal is looking to appoint three diverse and/or underrepresented writers based in the North of England to participate in a professional art writing development scheme. They will provide a positive, supportive atmosphere to nurture your ideas and skills. Read more
Coop and Community Finance: Thrive Together Fund
The Fund is delivered by a skilled partnership made up of Social Investment Business and Co-operative and Community Finance, alongside; the Fredericks Foundation, Groundwork, Homeless Link, and The Architectural Heritage Fund. Funding is available for small and medium sized co-ops, community businesses, charities and social enterprises based in and delivering impact in England, who are trading and looking to grow or diversify their business models. Find out more
Writers & Artists (W&A) Working-Class Writers' Prize 2023
Application deadline - Monday 2 October
Are you a writer who identifies as working-class? If you are looking for an opportunity to hone your writing craft and let your work take centre stage, then this prize is for you. This competition is both a celebration of stories as a mode of communication, and a reminder of how vital it is that everyone can share their ideas and experiences via the written word. The W&A Working–Class Writers’ Prize includes a generous mentoring package as well as cash and other membership / training benefits and resources. Find out information including how to apply
Vacancies
Fundraising Officer – Clinks
Policy and Communications Officer - Clinks
Head of Operations – Odd Arts
Lead Practitioner – Odd Arts
Learning & Engagement Co-ordinator – Synergy Theatre Project
Freelance music leaders – Sing Inside
Project Manager, Criminal Justice - National Literacy Trust
Reader in Residence – Portsmouth – The Reader
Prison Volunteer - Multiple Locations – Fine Cell Work
Volunteer – Helix Arts
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Want to include something in the next newsletter?
The next NCJAA monthly newsletter will be sent on Thursday 31 August. If you have any news, opportunities or events relating to art organisations or projects within the criminal justice system that you would like included, please submit your information via our online form by Monday 21 August.
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This newsletter is written monthly. Email artsalliance@clinks.org if you wish to submit any news.
The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance is embedded in Clinks.
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