A Meaningful Alternative
Amara Clark and Diane Gault highlight the exceptional work of St Giles Trust, a charity dedicated to offering an alternative lifestyle to ex-offenders.
Home Secretary John Reid (pictured) recently met ex-offenders working for St Giles Trust to see for himself the powerful, ground-breaking work St Giles carries out with offenders. Four days after the visit, the Offender Management Bill passed through The Commons. The Bill means that charities such as St Giles will be able to bid for work currently ring-fenced for the probation service, thus enabling St Giles to further develop their dynamic and radical approach to reducing offending by training and employing ex-offenders to help others resettle in the community upon release. John Reid was highly impressed by the ex-prisoners he met and their ability to relate to and understand the other ex-prisoners they are supporting, stating that: “Only people who have been down a hole can help others get out.”The Home Secretary spoke with ex-offenders working at St Giles who had successfully turned their lives around while in prison by studying the NVQ3 in Advice and Guidance and working to support other inmates while in prison. St Giles Trust provides the NVQ Trainer who trains and supports the prisoner Peer Advisors to screen the many thousands of short term and remand prisoners coming into prison each year. On average, each peer adviser helps between 200-250 prisoners a month. Peer Advisors establish whether new prisoners have a housing or support need; for example they may have an existing tenancy which can be saved, or have problems such as drug or alcohol addiction that they need to get help for. They deal with tenancy and housing problems and link prisoners into the support services they need to help with other issues. St Giles Trust is the first organisation to provide prisoner Peer Advisors with such a high level qualification, the NVQ3 in Advice and Guidance, which is equivalent to two A Levels. The work Peer Advisors do is designed to meet the many needs that prisoners often have – housing and homelessness being just one issue. Mental health problems, substance abuse problems, backgrounds of poverty, lack of education and abuse are other serious issues that must be addressed.
Upon release, Peer Advisors can work on St Giles Trust’s ‘Straight to Work’ project, using their qualification to meet prisoners as they are released, advocating on their behalf and helping them find homes and jobs. Straight to Work offers supported and protected employment to St Giles Trust’s Peer Advisors, enabling them to gain essential work experience and familiarise themselves with what is often a different and challenging work environment. As with the Peer Advice project, the prisoners gain experience for themselves whilst also helping other prisoners.
Straight to Work project is entirely funded by charitable donations as a pilot project. Statutory funding would enable the project to grow and develop – offering potentially thousands of prisoners a meaningful alternative to the vicious cycle of prison, homelessness, poverty and re-offending. St Giles Trust’s pioneering approach of employing offenders and ex-offenders, making them a part of the solution, enables us to reach many thousands of people each year. More importantly, the people that are delivering the work have been through the system and can truly empathise with the people they support. One of our recent graduates, Bill, began offending aged eight. He then spent the next thirty years in and out of prison. As he says: “I never achieved anything in prison. I vegetated in my cell, not doing much except for getting into trouble and going to the gym.”
Bill found the NVQ gave him a goal to focus on and a reason to keep out of trouble. On release, St Giles arranged a work placement followed by a paid job on Straight to Work. With qualifications and experience, Bill successfully applied for a job as a housing support worker. Reflecting back on his time at St Giles, Bill said: “I didn't notice the change while it was happening. It’s only through looking back that I realise how far I have come. Had I not done the NVQ3 in prison, I would probably still be offending because I didn’t know what else to do.”
St Giles Trust’s work has been lauded by high profile figures such as John Reid and Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. Lord Ramsbotham, the former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said of St Giles’ work in HMP Holloway: “I know of few more practical contributions to the solution of the ongoing problem, and could not commend their work more highly”.
In 2004, The Peer Advice Scheme won the Andy Ludlow Award for innovation in tackling homelessness and Maria McNicholl, our development worker, has just been awarded a Butler Trust Award at Buckingham Palace for her work developing Peer Advice.
St Giles has expanded rapidly in the past five years. Three years ago we were in just three prisons and today we are in eighteen. The Offender Management Bill will pass responsibility for the probation service from the 42 probation boards to the Home Secretary himself, who will contract out £250 million worth of probation work each year. If the Offender Management Bill passes through The Lords and becomes law, organisations such as St Giles will have the opportunity to expand still further. We believe that everybody has the right to a home and a job. We want to empower prisoners to gain that for themselves and to help others turn their lives around.
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Issue : July 2010
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