Prisoners and ex-offenders | City & Guilds Foundation

How we’re supporting St Giles to change lives by investing in vital training

by Polly Rowe | 14 Jul 2022 | Awareness Raising, Campaigning, Funding, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders

St Giles is a London-based charity that helps people create a better future for themselves, and they’ve been an active part of our Foundation network for over five years. The charity works with people to overcome poverty, exploitation, abuse, addiction, mental health problems, crime or a combination of these issues. And a significant number of its peer advisors are people who have overcome their own struggles – often through St Giles’ own programmes. The peer advisors then use their ‘lived...

Helping our partners in the offender / reoffending space to embrace neurodiversity

by Jennifer Warner | 16 Jun 2022 | Campaigning, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Funding, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders

Last week was my second week of secondment with the Foundation Team and I was fortunate to be able to attend a two-day Neurodiversity Train the Trainer event. It was delivered by Helen Arnold Richardson from DO-It Solutions, and was specifically for our Foundation charity partners who work with offenders and ex-offenders – all with one shared goal, to reduce reoffending. Our partners in this space includes St Giles, Groundwork, Bounce Back, No Going Back and HMP Hull – as well as colleagues...

No Going Back: City & Guilds Foundation supports The Livery Company initiative

by Polly Rowe | 2 Mar 2022 | Charity partners, Livery companies, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders

There are few occasions since setting up City & Guilds some 144 years ago when the Livery Companies have worked together towards a single objective. And that’s why we’re delighted that through the City & Guilds Foundation we’re able to support the new and exciting Livery ‘No Going Back’ initiative supporting offender rehabilitation. At the City & Guilds Foundation supporting the rehabilitation of offenders and former offenders has been a priority for some time. We recognise that...

[Podcast] Inclusion & Diversity Series: Marginalised Groups – Prison Leavers

by Julia Bena | 21 Oct 2021 | Awareness Raising, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Events, Podcasts, Prisoners and ex-offenders

As part of the City & Guilds Foundation Inclusion and diversity events series, offering thought-provoking conversations and actionable steps to promote equal opportunities and improve inclusion and diversity in your organisation. In this episode we explored excluded groups and giving fair chances for people with lived experience of prison to gain employment. Most prison leavers want the opportunity to turn their life around. Having a job helps them stay out of prison and getting back on...

Fair opportunities: employing prison leavers

by Julia Bena | 18 Jun 2021 | Awareness Raising, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Events, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders

This guest post is by Miki Tillet, Lead Learning Designer at Kineo. The second in a series of I&D events hosted by the City & Guilds Foundation went live on Tuesday the 8th of June, this time focusing on inclusion in the context of employing people with lived experience of the justice system. This event featured guest speakers Surini Ranawake of the New Futures Network, James Timpson of Timpson Group, and Claire Wood of Deloitte. In case you missed it, you can catch up in full...

A partnership that’s making a real difference, to real people

by Polly Rowe | 21 May 2021 | Charity partners, Funding, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders, Social Impact

The City & Guilds Foundation and The Educators’ Trust have teamed up to provide mental health first aid training for a team of advisors delivering vital services to vulnerable young people. The training which also includes essential digital skills will be delivered through St Giles – a charity using expertise and real-life past experiences to empower people who are not getting the help they need. People held back by poverty, exploited, abused, dealing with addiction or mental health...

Support for a green start

by Polly Rowe | 27 Jan 2021 | Funding, Future Skills Commission for Prisons, News, Prisoners and ex-offenders

This guest post is by Andrew Harrison, Head of Contracts at Groundwork UK. As has often been said of late, we’re facing unprecedented challenges as a nation. Those challenges are many and significant – global economic trends, a changing climate and now an unforgiving pandemic. All of these forces impact first and worst on those in our society who have least, adding to the structural inequalities that have been affecting parts of our country for decades. Supporting those who need it most...

Interview with Change Grow Live’s Laura Shurrock

by Polly Rowe | 15 Oct 2020 | Charity partners, Funding, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders, Youth engagement

We recently caught up with Laura Shurrock, Mentoring Support Officer at Change Grow Live, a charity we have been supporting since 2018 with a three-year grant. Change Grow Live’s mission is to help people change the direction of their lives, grow as individuals, and live life to its full potential. Our funding supports Change Grow Live's project in partnership with Birmingham Youth Offending Service and the West Midlands Police, which helps young people in the community who are at risk of...

From prison to lockdown: how to make peer-mentoring work in the crisis

by Laura Mountain | 6 Oct 2020 | Charity partners, Funding, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders

The best ideas are born out of necessity, and for St Giles that was finding a way to deliver the Peer Advisor programme during Covid-19. The programme trains people with lived experience of social exclusion, including many prisoners and prison-leavers, to become Level 3 qualified Peer Advisors who then go on to support others from similar backgrounds. It plays a significant role in helping people overcome barriers and move towards employment; research from Cranfield University found that...

New skills fund to unlock £500m per year employment potential of UK prison population supporting efforts to rebuild after Covid

by Laura Mountain | 22 Sep 2020 | Critical transition points, Funding, Future Skills Commission for Prisons, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders

Unlocking the skills potential of the UK’s prison population could put £500million a year back into the economy in lowering reoffending rates alone[1], a much-needed boost as we seek to rebuild the economy following Covid, new analysis from the City & Guilds Foundation suggests. The findings come as City & Guilds, the leading skills development provider, launches an ambitious new Future Skills Commission for Prisons to use jobs and training to help divert prisoners from committing...