Beyond Prison is part of the charity Southside Partnership, which began in 1991. Southside operates in eight local authority areas in Greater London and Surrey but the Beyond Prison resettlement project is accessible in all 33 boroughs, with a particularly strong presence in south London.
Fabio told Volunteering magazine: "Our volunteers are ‘experts by experience’. Their experiences in prison make them good role models for other prisoners who wantto turn their lives around. They have had a great impact across our organisation. As well as volunteers acting as peer advisors to people leaving prison, we have volunteers in our central office involved in the admin side of things and clerical work.”
"We have created several different roles which have been really successful and now have volunteers in finance and we are thinking about having volunteers in HR.We also have our first volunteer with a learning disability – this has been a really successful story."
"We have seen the project through from the beginning. It has been a great pleasure to be in this position."
The project was funded by an OFV grant and supported by Volunteering England's Grants Team but that has come to and end and it is hoped further funding can be secured.
Nicholas Campbell-Watts, Director of Fanon Mental Health Services at Southside, said: "We are determined to secure future funding for this scheme. Beyond Prison is a really vital bit of work and a high standard has been set from day one. The volunteers have felt valued and fully integrated as members of the team. We have been proud of the positive stories of people transforming their lives.
"Volunteers have really influenced our organisation in important ways through their ‘lived experience’ and the skills and passion they have brought to their work. These volunteers have become ‘leaders’ in the areas they work in and this has changed the culture of our organisation."
Genevieve MacCarthy, Peer Volunteer Co-ordinator, said: "We started with three volunteers and from the outset we wanted volunteers to be part of the team – they are Beyond Prison. We have supported 56 volunteers in all, with four going into employment..
"The majority of volunteers at the Southside Partnership are in our Beyond Prison project, while others are involved elsewhere. Some volunteers are receptionists and support workers while others volunteer in our day centres and provide advice. ‘Work pathways’ have been a real boost and I think the hardest bit has been when volunteers leave."
We asked Fabio:
Q How did the project come to be?
A Southside applied for funding in 2006 with the aim of supporting more offenders and ex-offenders with mental health needs on their release.
At the time it was clear that there was a lot more people in need of support than we could actually provide. The volunteering scheme was designed to provide additional capacity for the service.
Finally the addition of volunteers to the service would give us the real service user perspective of how our service should run and what to improve.
Q What is your role as Beyond Prison manager?
A To ensure volunteers have a good induction, training and are able to work with service users. Part of the manager’s role is also to liaise with external agencies. i.e Prisons, other VCS and education providers to ensure volunteers are able to deliver the work and gain training at the same time. Finally to ensure that there is pathway leading to paid employment internally and externally.
Q How do you recruit your volunteers and how long do they tend to stay with the project?
A The volunteers are recruited through the Southside Partnership web page, word of mouth, and through several agencies such as Wandsworth Action CounciI. The length of time the volunteers stay with the project is between 6 to 12 months but the volunteers are not restricted to the length of time they stay although so far we have had two volunteers who have stayed with the project for 12 months or more.
Q What kind of support, supervision and training is available for the volunteers?
A The volunteers are given regular supervisions in which we explore personal development and areas of interest for each.
All volunteers are able to gain the expertise of the whole team through being paired with a buddy to undertake all community visits, including assessment
Volunteers are engaged in NVQ Advice and Guidance level 2 and 3, NVQ Health and Social Care level 2 and 3, the BME Leadership training and Changing Mind programmes, as well as undergoing Clinks training in working with offenders.
In addition to this volunteers undergo core induction training which covers fire and health and safety, the Recovery Star programme, which helps service users track their progress, and IT training.
Q Could you list some highlights and challenges of involving volunteers on the project?
A Finding free training has been a challenging task and the induction of volunteers in IT and managing the office environment hasn’t been easy. Other challenges have been persuading the Prison Service to allow the volunteers to come in to work and adapting the team to working with volunteers who have mental health needs and challenging behaviour, along with having to deal with the large volume of applications for volunteering
The highlights include the number of volunteers who have found employment, gained NVQs and not relapsed into re-offending.
Beyond Prison volunteers - their perspective:
Bilal has been a volunteer for four months and part of his role is to visit prisons. He’d volunteered somewhere else but heard about the scheme via another volunteer. Bilalis a musician and had travelled to Nepal and Italy where his experiences had left him feeling that he wanted to ‘give something back’. “It is a really pleasant place to be", Bilal told Volunteering magazine.
“Never underestimate the work of volunteers because professionals built the Titanic and volunteers built the ark!”
Edward had attended an open day to find out about the project and met Genevieve. Edward said he had been 'terrified' at first but had plucked up the courage to fill in a form. Edward explained that he has interests in drama and arts and wanted to build up his confidence.
After six months of volunteering Edward went into a prison to volunteer – he had been afraid to do this previously. Edward described this as a ‘big step’ and added that he might want to do this again in the future and was looking into working in this area. "Volunteering has helped me gain confidence and I have helped other people. The atmosphere here is wonderful."
“Respect everyone. This volunteering looks good on your CV and helps in terms of a reference also. I’ve had Clinks training and Recovery Star training – which involves a 10-point system to track the progress of service users."
Karen had previously been in prison herself in Surrey and found out about the project from a volunteer there. Karen has been volunteering for 10 months and helps people coming out of prison to find out about housing, benefits, provides help with mental health problems and accompanies people as they come out of jail.
She helps them register with a doctor and get the medicines they need. "I’ve been in the position of our clients and I know what they really need. I can relate to what they’re going through.”
“We meet former prisoners as they come out and make sure that they don’t lapse – they can confide in us. We get a lot out of it and our courses are paid for.”
Fabio (another volunteer), told Volunteering magazine: "I heard about Southside through a friend who worked there. I started volunteering in August 2009 and go into Pentonville to assess inmates. I currently have three clients and also update our database. I have had training in Recovery Star and Mental Health First Aid and have gained more skills and hope to gain paid work. It has helped my self-esteem and confidence, self-belief, social skills and communication skills.”
