Background to Out There
Out There is a charity (1120342) and company limited by guarantee (6239170), established by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul in 2006 to support families of prisoners across Greater Manchester. We support families on the phone, by visiting them in their own homes and by offering services such as family forums, support groups and Family Days at our centre in Old Trafford. 1330 families have benefited from the service since it was set up. Our services are flexible and tailored to the needs of families and we are the only organisation in this area that supports families of prisoners in their own homes. We provide a service that is respectful, responsive and there for all families for as long as they need it.
Our Values
Out There is a Christian charity that practises Vincentian Values in all aspects of its work. The values are inspired by the co-founders of the Vincentian identity, St Vincent de Paul and St Louise de Marillac who responded to the extreme poverty they encountered in 17th Century France by delivering practical support with care and compassion.
Our service is based on helping people who are experiencing the effects imprisonment of a family member. We respect the dignity of each person, we are compassionate and caring and we build relationships of trust with those we work with.
We are committed to equality and diversity and work with and involve people of any faith or background. There is no requirement for staff and volunteers to be practising Christians, but they should understand and respect the Christian identity of the organisation and be able to practise the values in day to day work.
Why is Out There needed?
45% of adults are reconvicted within 1 year of release
40% of prisoners say that support from their family would help stop them reoffending
45% of prisoners lose touch with their families when in prison
(Facts from ‘The Bromley Briefing’ Summer 2015)
With the support of the family prisoners are less likely to reoffend. Yet the Criminal Justice System does not consider the needs of prisoners’ families and no statutory support is provided for them. Our service aims to help families maintain ties with their imprisoned relative.
Prisoners are often moved far from their homes and prison is a frightening place for children visiting their parents. The families we work with have many practical difficulties in caring for their families, dealing with money and housing, understanding the prison system and the cost of visiting family members in prison. They face discrimination and stigma due to the crime of a family member and most are living in poverty. Stress, anxiety and depression are prevalent.
Out There’s Services
- Unique home visiting service to families of prisoners across Greater Manchester
- Telephone information and support service for families in Greater Manchester
- Twice weekly outreach work at the Visitor Centre in HMP Manchester
- Support Group for families of sex offenders
- Family Days for parents and children
- Wellbeing Days for women
- Family Forum where families can raise their concerns with a governor from HMP Manchester
Staff and Volunteers
We currently employ four paid staff (3.8 full time equivalent):
- Director
- Two Support Workers
- Part-time Administrator/Bookkeeper
The small team of paid staff are supported by eight volunteers who help in the office, by visiting families, taking families to prison visits, helping out at events and undertaking garden and maintenance work at Powell Street.
Who Out There helps
Our services are there for any family member of a prisoner in Greater Manchester
1330 families have benefited from the service since it was set up in 2006
96 families currently have a Support Worker who visits them at home or offers support over the phone
90% of our current clients are women with a partner, son, father or brother in prison
Our services are inclusive and freely available to people of all nationalities and faiths, or no faith
73% of our clients live in postcodes which are in the bottom third in terms of deprivation
The work of Out There in the year 2015-16
Most families on our caseload use the service for between 1-3 years. 96 families are currently using this service, just over half were new referrals this year. They have a nominated Support Worker who is a listener,befriender, conduit between the family and the criminal justice system and a source of practical support and information, often referring the family to other community services that can help with the challenges of daily life such as CAB, social care, housing agencies, Food Banks, GPs, Women’s Aid, Drug and Alcohol and Mental Health Services.
There was no incease in the number of people supported by the casework service this year. However, our interactions with people have become more intensive. 41% of families who completed a self assessment at the start of their involvement with Out There had two or more areas of life where they felt they were ‘in crisis’ and ‘in need of immediate help. ’Telephone calls and home visits, the most frequent interventions have increased. 445 home visits took place in the year (349 last year) and 1607 calls were made to, from and concerning clients (1545 last year).
Families on the caseload are invited to events, which are held at our premises every few months where they can get mutual support from other families of prisoners.56 families attended events and groups at our premises 23 children and 8 adults attended 2 Family Days, 15 women attended 3 Wellbeing Days and the Support Group for families of sex offenders met 4 times. “Meeting with other families even after my husband’s release has been and still is very important. It stops me feeling isolated with our situation and we can talk and support each other.”
The ten issues most often raised by families in the year were:
- Concerns about a prisoner
- Emotional wellbeing and mental health
- Visiting prison and staying in touch
- Health
- Finance, debt, hardship
- Feeling isolated with no support
- Release and resettlement
- Children and parenting
- Sentencing
- Legal
Concerns about prsioners and problems staying in touch
More families have expressed concerns about the safety and wellbeing of their family member either because the person is vulnerable due to mental or physical health conditions or because they have told their families about incidents of bullying or assault. The increasing problems with alcohol and drug use in prisons has impacted on some families.
As the prison system comes under increasing pressure families are finding it harder than ever to stay in touch with their family member in prison. Prisoners spend longer locked up and cannot always phone their families.
On a daily basis we liaise with prisons to raise and resolve these concerns with chaplains, health care, the visitor centre, safer custody, property, and communications departments. We have close links with governors in HMP Manchester, one of whom attends a forum at our office and we also help families to write letters to prisons, MPs, courts and the Home Office (for immigration issues). We have strengthened our partnership work with support agencies working in prisons particularly Gate Buddies, Shelter and the Salford Prison Project.
“Fantastic help in sourcing help for my son, writing letters and pointing us in the right direction. Just having someone who follows up and is genuinely concerned”
Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health
The arrest and imprisonment of a family member is a shocking, traumatic and confusing time, which has a massive impact on the mental health and wellbeing of those left behind. We help by keeping in contact, listening, referring families to specialist counselling services and offering the opportunity for them to meet others in similar circumstances at one of our events or support groups.
“Just the knowledge that there is someone at the end of the phone who will listen without judging is so precious”
“Helped me to learn that life will get better”
Practical and Financial Help
We maintain a small emergenty Hardship Fund to mitigate the effects of poverty and the financial difficulties that can come from having a family member in prison and we provide whatever practical help is needed including accompanying families to court, hospital, GP, housing or benefits meetings, assisting them to complete applications for benefits, housing and APV (help with travel costs to prison visits) and taking them to prison visits when they are unable to travel independently due to age, illness or disability.
“You came to see me in hospital and helped to arrange for my son who is in prison to visit me in hospital”.
Resettlement is an evolving area of work as we focus on connecting families to resettlement agencies; Probation, Salford Prison Project, Back on Track, Gate Buddies (drug and alcohol support), housing agencies, mental health services and bail hostels and providing emotional support as the family is reunited again.
The impact of the work we do
From 1st April 2015 we moved from a paper based case work system to the Caseworker Connect Case Management database, which we use to log enquiries, casework actions, the issues raised by families and their progress towards outcomes.
We also began to use an outcomes tool with families to record their own assessment of their situation when we start working with them and changes as a result of our involvement. We are getting regular completion of these and although the sample size is still small it has helped us to get a picture of the difficulties families are facing and to have a focused discussion with them on how we can help. The improvements we have seen on follow up include a decrease in isolation and an improvement in emotional wellbeing.
42 families responded to an annual evaluation in April 2016:
77% were more informed about the prison system
70% were more able to deal with their problems
67% felt less lonely and isolated
65% were more confident
62% felt less anxious
45% had been signposted to other services that helped them
28% had gained support from others in a similar situation