St Mary’s Youth Club is based in Creggan in Derry City. Its focus is to provide support for young people aged 5-25 years old. St Mary’s Youth Club empowers young people through personal development. It provides a safe and social space for young people to engage in a wide variety of activities and programmes and caters for the diverse interests and needs of local young people. Activities are designed to inspire young people, build confidence and explore their passions.

Our grant will be used to work with young people who have a criminal conviction and have the potential to re-offend. The main aim of the Sports for Rehabilitation programme is to give these young people an alternative to formal education with the goal of obtaining the skills needed to gain employment and refrain from re-offending.

Since 2012, as the official charity of Huddersfield Town AFC, the Huddersfield Town Foundation has been inspiring people, creating opportunities and working with other local organisations to deliver a variety of projects across Kirklees, West Yorkshire. Our mission is to tackle the consequences of inequality by working to provide positive opportunities and support to the community of the Kirklees district. Our vision is to create lifelong opportunities for people to feel safe, healthy and included as part of the community.

Our grant will be used to expand on the work that we have delivered to date at HMP New Hall. We will work closely with identified individuals to provide a bespoke service that understands their needs and offers accredited qualifications and skill enhancement opportunities, as well as providing direct links to employers upon release. This is to ultimately reduce the risk of reoffending following release.

Rising Stars Support provides holistic support toward supporting young people from marginalised backgrounds and low-income households in South London. Many of the young people we support have been engaged in youth violence and crime. Our aim is to reduce offending and to provide services and activities which support growth and personal development of young people. We provide constructive and therapeutic outlets that facilitate the transition towards leading fulfilling lives and careers into adulthood. 

Our grant will support the reduction of young people in Croydon who have come into contact with the criminal justice services by providing diversionary activities through Mixed Martial Arts sessions, 1:1 progression support/mentoring, therapy sessions and employability support sessions. Through our work we aim to reduce rates of reoffending for young people in the borough.

Spark Inside is an award-winning charity that has transformed the lives of over 1,500 people living and working in our prisons. We have pioneered coaching in prisons, showing the value of coaching to change lives and systems. In the next decade, we set out to make coaching available to anyone who wants it in the justice system and aim to reach 10,000 young people with our coaching programmes. 

We are one of the first organisations to take life coaching to people living and working in prison and to use systems coaching to bring together staff and prisoners in UK prisons.

Our expert coaches are qualified and trained professionals. In addition to developing and delivering innovative coaching programmes, we are also committed to working with parliamentarians and government officials to influence criminal justice policy, and shift the perception of people in prison, platforming their voices and highlighting their unlocked potential. In addition to our coaching programmes for people in prison, we are also coaching prison staff and young people in the community.

Opportunity Sports Foundation (OSF) harnesses the power of sports to empower and support young people from challenging backgrounds, such as offenders, those leaving care, the homeless, and substance misusers. Our sports-based approach aims to enhance education, provide work experience, improve job search and CV writing skills, support employment, and foster a positive peer network to reduce risk-taking behaviour’s.

The recurrence of the same young people within the categories of offenders, homeless, and those

in/leaving care underscores the interconnectedness of these demographics. To address this, OSF employs a collaborative, multi-agency approach to deliver a comprehensive and holistic programme for these young people.

Our grant will support a mix of young male and female offenders, age 15-24 on our Reform Sport Project which uses a sport for development approach, so they can reach their social, educational and employment potential.

Sport 4 Life UK helps young people (aged 11 to 29) move into sustained education, training and work through sports-themed personal development – which includes mentoring, employability programmes, school support and sports sessions.

Our grant will deliver wraparound employability and wellbeing support to young people with criminal convictions in Birmingham, via engagement in free-to-access community sports sessions combined with personalised one-to-one mentoring.

Boats not Bars is an in-prison and on-release rowing program run by the charity Fulham Reach Boat Club. It uses the intervention of a rowing program as a medium for learning the skills and behaviours that have been shown to reduce the chances of someone reoffending after release from prison. With prisons at capacity, and statistics showing us that nearly half of those behind bars will go on to reoffend, something needs to be done to make prison a one-off punishment, and not the start of an ongoing cycle of offending and imprisonment.

Our grant will be used to expand our delivery at HMP/ YOI Feltham. We are increasing our delivery time with current participants of the course, but are also now able to provide support to those who have completed the course, on the journey to and after release.

Konnect Communities provides non-discriminatory and non-judgmental person-centred support to individuals who may be involved in the criminal justice system or who have complex and diverse needs.

Our grant will enable Konnect Communities to provide long-term, bespoke, face-to-face, 1-2-1 mentoring to 20 young people in Cornwall with a criminal conviction, including looked after young people. The support with aim to help them to secure employment and reduce re-offending.

Merseyside Expanding Horizons develops the skills of socially and economically disadvantaged communities in the Merseyside region, so that they are better equipped to identify their needs and participate confidently within society.  

Our grant will fund a combined program of artistic intervention, employment/enterprise training and mentoring for young female offenders. This will take place during and post release to enable young women leaving prison to take steps to transition into meaningful employment or self-employment, harnessing their skills, creativity and passions.

Open Lens Media is a Training, Development, and Engagement organisation providing employment services, educational courses, school holiday programmes, community engagement services, and training and consultancy to young people and youth focused agencies/authorities working with those stemming from disenfranchised, underrepresented, and under-served backgrounds.

Our grant will support Open Lens Media to deliver their Pathways Employability Programme to Black and Mixed Heritage young men aged 16-25 with a criminal conviction or leaving the criminal justice system. They will receive 6 months of Employability Skills and development support with the aim of successfully transitioning them into meaningful employment.

A charity set up by Rochdale AFC to carry out community work and charitable projects across the borough of Rochdale. Their key areas of work are community sport, education and employability and health and inclusion.

Our grant will enable Rochdale AFC Football In The Community Trust to deliver a programme of employment-focused support for young people with experience of both the care and criminal justice systems in Rochdale.  It will fund an Employability Mentor who will design a fully individualised plan for each young person, based on an understanding of the challenges that the individual faces, as well as the opportunities and interests they have with regards to future employment.

St. Columb’s Park House is based in Derry and facilitate a range of projects that animate communities and individuals to work together towards a fair, peaceful society where every individual feels valued and can make a positive difference.

Our grant will fund a project called Fight for MySELF, which uses mixed martial arts as a development tool for young offenders in HMP McGilligan to change negative mindsets, to build a sense of hope, a sense of purpose and present real opportunities as a bridge to employment post-release.

Sussex Pathways is a criminal justice charity based in Lewes, East Sussex, that work within prisons and communities with the aim of reducing offending behaviours and empowering ex-offenders to make positive life choices.

Our grant will enable Sussex Pathways to support young women who are leaving prison to gain and sustain employment. The project will provide support to the employer and employee to prevent loss of employment and build in volunteer mentoring support to address and overcome any barriers to employment.

Trailblazers is a national charity set up to mentor young offenders (18-25), with the primary objective of helping to reduce their re-offending. Through weekly 1:1 mentoring sessions – both inside prisons and after release – they aim to educate, encourage and inspire mentees to change their future and make a positive impact on their communities.

Our grant will fund the role of Partnerships Manager, who will ensure volunteer mentors are in place to work with young offenders.  This role will also enable Trail-Blazers Mentoring to build their corporate and community employment partnerships for the purpose of getting young men into meaningful, long-lasting work.

WAITS offer four core services which aim to support women to achieve their goals, feel empowered and to assist in gaining independence. These are domestic abuse help, community integration, refuge accommodation and volunteering and influencing.                                                                                                                                        

Our grant will enable WAITS to deliver 8 employment programmes working with young women offenders affected by domestic abuse. Through mentoring and coaching, interactive workshops and work placement experience, the programmes will provide these young women with access to employment and training opportunities creating positive distractions to reduce the risk of re-offending or re-entering harmful relationships in the future.