Could you describe the work of Kids Matter and your role within it?
Kids Matter’s vision is for every child in need to be raised in a strong family. Our mission is to engage local churches to equip parents and carers facing disadvantages with confidence, competence, and community, enabling their children to thrive.
The need that we want to address is child suffering, which is increasing at an alarming rate. Rising poverty across the UK is rendering families in already disadvantaged communities unable to cope and it is the children who suffer the most with a range of emotional, psychological and social problems. Parental imprisonment is one possible consequence of adversity and the impact on children is considerable.
Research has shown that the most effective, early intervention to help children is group based parenting programmes. Our highly effective parenting programmes equip parents and carers in the community and in prison who are facing disadvantages with confidence, competence and community, enabling their children to thrive. Everything we do is focused on the country’s vulnerable children.
We engage local churches to use our relational, evidence informed programmes for families of all faiths and none in their communities. We train peer facilitators from the churches, who make long term commitments to support families in their local communities and prisons across our country. Together, we can build a future where every child in need is raised in a strong family.
My role as Prison Partnership Development is to expand our prison programme, which has run in HMP Wandsworth since 2017. I contact the prisons to introduce them to Kids Matter and agree logistics, and contact local churches to offer our programme as a tool to support their community in prison. I will also be developing the prison programme by looking at things such as peer mentors and how to work with their partners.
What drew you to the organisation?
I was drawn in by the desire Kids Matter has to be a tool to bridge the gap between the local church and their local communities. So often churches are eager to reach their local communities but do not have the appropriate, accessible tools with which to do so. I was also so keen to work for an organisation that was doing something that actually worked and produced change. The best way to support kids is to support the people who are most influential in their lives, which is something that the Kids Matter programme does so well. Lastly, and probably the biggest draw, was their desire to help parents in prison. It spoke directly to my desire to invest in those in prison and bring the church right to their doorstep.
How, if at all, did it lead on from earlier work that you had done?
I completed an MA in Applied Theatre, Drama and the Criminal Justice System. This involved facilitating theatre in prisons. Although this is quite different to enabling parenting programmes to happen in prisons, my passion of investing in those in prison and using facilitation skills is still very much present.
What challenges you most about your work?
It can be challenging work as it can be quite slow progress. Being able to recruit enough facilitators, train them and get the prison on board all at the same time can be so difficult. Everyone is busy and has different priorities, so trying to line everything up at once can be hard!
And what excites you most about your work?
What is most exciting is definitely the possibility of positively affecting those in prison and their family. Through testimonials of the dads in prison who have done our programme so far, it is clear they gain so much from the programme. One particular dad said ‘This course makes me hold myself accountable when I find it hard to keep trying to build the relationship [with my kids] and feel like giving up. I can ring them, I can make the extra effort’. Our impact data shows us that 93% of participants have been helped by the programme, 78% felt more able to listen and encourage their children, and parental confidence increased from 6 to 8.6 out of 10. Strengthening family ties reduces the odds of reoffending by 39%, so my role of getting this programme in more prisons is so exciting because of all the potential for change that it holds.
What do you think is the greatest need in the prison and probation service, and how do you think as a society we can work towards it?
Difficult to name just one! I think there is an over-arching need of reform to our prison system, but this encompasses everything from over-crowding, to education and job opportunities, to support upon release. I think as a society we can work towards reform just by learning how rehabilitative prisons work in other countries. We can learn a lot from Halden – a prison in Norway that has acquired the reputation for being the most humane prison in the world. The focus is on rehabilitation rather than punishment, with an architectural design that simulates life on the outside, without conventional security devices. The people in the prison have access to a variety of activities e.g. sport and music. Whilst the prison has been criticised for being too liberal, they actually have not had a serious assault in over 5 years, which is unheard of in UK prisons.