Volunteering & Citizenship Paula Atherton Sefton Council for Voluntary Service Icebreaker; Hands up who has been involved in volunteering Hands up if you learnt new skills from that volunteering Hands up if you felt connected with the community

Benefits of Volunteering & Citizenship Learning / develop new skills Boost career options Develop interests and hobbies Provide new experiences Meeting a diverse range of people Motivation and sense of achievement Be part of a community Be involved and feel like an important part of society Volunteering can instigate profound life changing experiences, provoke changes in attitudes, or basically change old habits, and create positive new ones

Baroness Neuberger “Volunteering has the potential to rehabilitate offenders.” “It can provide skills, a route to employment and learning, a sense of responsibility and a new role in society.” So there’s clearly an opportunity here to support and strengthen rehabilitation. as well as contribute to the workings of the prison. What we don’t want to do is impose strict control in prison and then release people who are institutionalised and dependant back into society where behaviour can not be monitored or managed.

NACRO 2009 “Around 12 per cent of Nacro’s Volunteers are former offenders who have left crime behind them” Again demonstrating that volunteering can provoke life changing experiences

Criminal Justice Citizenship Peer Roles Mentoring / Counselling Democratic Community Activity Insiders; acting on behalf of prison supporting other vulnerable offenders and the wider population in the prison Listeners; trained samaritans on call, provide 1:1 support, sometimes sitting up through the night – saving lives! Wing Reps / Race Equality participation Roles attending forums with governors and strategic leads, influencing positive chance in the prison. Community support schemes involving work with or on behalf of people or groups outside the prison. These roles and opp enable offender to take responsibility and contribute to the life of the prison community and to wider society. CJ vol involved in saving lives and basically making a difficult period a bit easier for others. But we need to expand schemes and open up citizeship roles to the wider community and not just the most obvious candidates.

Benefits A purpose to their time in prison Acquired skills Earning trust A chance to give something back Route from passive recipient to a contributor to society Develop responsibility However the overall numbers of offenders given the opportunities to get involved in these roles are small, as well as specific to a certain type of offender. As well as in wider society citizenship activities should complement work and paid roles

Offender feedback ‘I’ve always been take, take, take and I’ve never given anything back before, I feel a hundred times better, now that I can give something back’. ‘It’s a great feeling when you see guys who you have helped through. There’s a sense of pride, something I’ve never had in the past’.

Sefton CVS Recognising criminal justice citizenship roles Registering offenders as ‘volunteers’ Monitoring hours Providing certificates Helping to move into community volunteering roles on release Treating criminal justice Volunteering roles in the same way as community volunteering roles This year we had a celebration event during National Volunteer week awarded certificates to offenders who had completed 50 hours or more. We can work directly with offenders to help them to continue to develop their volunteering when they’re released.

‘Time Well Spent’ something to show for their lives Offenders expressed a desire for something to show for their lives and described a newfound pleasure from participating in volunteer roles.

Volunteers Offenders have moved on to a range of community roles: Fire Support Network Mentoring Counselling Handy Help Scheme

‘Offenders as Good Citizens’ Active Citizenship is the first step in a long journey Prison Reform Trust report/ Time Well Spent; challenges the government to acknowledge the important role that volunteering and active citizenship play in rehabilitation. If prisons have a genuine interest in contributing to the reduction of re-offending, then assessing risk and imposing measures to reduce it is only half of their duty; Assessing peoples strengths and providing opportunities for them to contribute is the other half. There is clearly a need for more opportunities and a greater diversity of roles in prisons and more inclusive approaches to engaging with offenders in the community, to ensure everyone can benefit from unique life-changing volunteering experiences. I see that as where we can all help, by targeting the prisons with suitable opportunities or just with ideas and together we can make full use of this important and untapped prison resource.........people!

Sefton Council for Voluntary Service paula.atherton@seftoncvs.org.uk Volunteering England Involving ex-offenders in volunteering http://www.volunteering.org.uk Nacro Rehabilitation of Offenders http://www.nacro.org.uk/ Paula Atherton Sefton Council for Voluntary Service paula.atherton@seftoncvs.org.uk 0151 928 2233 Ext111 NB; A third of all men, along with a significant proportion of women, have been convicted by the courts of theft, fraud and other serious criminal offences. A few of them will have been sent to prison. Many more people will have been cautioned by the police or convicted of less serious offences, ranging from public order to motoring offences. The figures mean that almost a quarter of men and women of working age have been convicted of a significant criminal offence. Ex-offenders therefore are not a small minority of people with whom we have nothing in common.