Membership Awards 2026 are open until 5 June – start your nomination now!

Find out more 🡕

Prisoners and ex-offenders

The latest stories in this category from the City & Guilds Foundation and our networks.

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

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

by | 21 Oct 2021 | , , , ,

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...

read more
Fair opportunities: employing prison leavers

Fair opportunities: employing prison leavers

by | 18 Jun 2021 | , , , ,

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...

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

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

by | 21 May 2021 | , , , ,

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...

read more
Support for a green start

Support for a green start

by | 27 Jan 2021 | , , ,

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...

read more
Interview with Change Grow Live’s Laura Shurrock

Interview with Change Grow Live’s Laura Shurrock

by | 15 Oct 2020 | , , , , ,

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...

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

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

by | 6 Oct 2020 | , , , ,

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...

read more
New skills fund to unlock ÂŁ500m per year employment potential of UK prison population supporting efforts to rebuild after Covid

New skills fund to unlock ÂŁ500m per year employment potential of UK prison population supporting efforts to rebuild after Covid

by | 22 Sep 2020 | , , , , ,

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...

read more
Junior Smart: Meaningful work will keep ex-offenders like me out of prison

Junior Smart: Meaningful work will keep ex-offenders like me out of prison

by | 21 Sep 2020 | , , , ,

The Foundation’s Big Idea Fund wants to experiment, to find out what really works so that it can be scaled up and used elsewhere. It is going out to brilliant charities and innovative prison projects that want to partner up and find practical solutions to one of our society’s biggest problems.  I believe a big idea like this has never been needed more. View this post on Instagram Meaningful work will keep ex-offenders like me out of prison, writes Junior Smart a member of our Future...

read more
The Clink charity launches Clink@Home takeaway / delivery service

The Clink charity launches Clink@Home takeaway / delivery service

by | 20 Aug 2020 | , , , ,

The Clink Charity has launched a takeaway / delivery service at HMP Brixton called Clink@Home. This has enabled The Clink to keep the restaurant open during lockdown, keeping prisoners employed and allowing them to continue studying towards their qualifications. Great @BBCNews feature showing the impact @TheClinkCharity has on reducing re-offending. If you live within 5 miles of @HMP_Brixton please support #ClinkAtHome - you'll be helping prisoners to continue studying towards their...

read more
The City & Guilds Foundation supporting communities throughout Covid-19

The City & Guilds Foundation supporting communities throughout Covid-19

by | 31 Mar 2020 | , , , , , , , , , ,

No one is untouched by Covid-19, and we are humbled by seeing so many of our communities and partners responding with such energy and grace to what is a difficult time for people and societies all over the world. We know that people need support now, to help them get the food, medicine and essential supplies to survive. We also know that many people are concerned about their work and employment prospects as the economic impact unfolds and people face losing their jobs and livelihoods. The City...

read more