Thames Valley Partnership
“protecting victims, supporting offenders and their families”
The Thames Valley Partnership works in partnership with the statutory, private and voluntary sectors to provide long-term sustainable solutions to the problems of crime and social exclusion. We work to protect victims and reintegrate offenders. Our strength is in collaborative working and integrated approaches across sectors, particularly linking Criminal Justice services to voluntary sector and Local Authority providers.
Our broad spectrum of work includes programmes around the needs of families of offenders, work in the field of domestic abuse, support for victims, restorative justice, community cohesion, mental health issues, early interventions & initiatives around young people and arts related projects.
Find out more about the different aspects of Our Work.
News
DIGNITY ON RELEASE – Please support our campaign!
Thank you to everyone who is supporting our Dignity on Release campaign in aid of the Partnership’s New Leaf and Family Matters programmes, which between them, provide support to offenders and their families from sentence to rehabilitation. We will be posting regular updates for you to keep up to date with our campaign, which will cover several activities, including a sponsored walk by Tim Jenns. The campaign will highlight key issues that undermine prisoners’ ability to successfully return to the community as well as raising funding to ensure the sustainability of the New Leaf project for the foreseeable future. Yesterday the team hand delivered a copy of a letter to the Minister for Prisons, Robert Buckland QC MP – see a copy here and the subsequent response. Letter to Mr Robert Buckland QC MP and the MOJ Reply
Hand delivering letters to the MOJ
DAY THREE UPDATE: Because of the heat, we have decided to curtail Tim’s walking. He is fine but we have to be responsible and have taken medical advice. However we will complete the walking in August/September by several of us walking an offender/mentees Walk – from Magistrates to Crown Court, to Aylesbury YOI, to Waddesdon Manor (who support mentees with employment and accommodation issues wonderfully) and on to HMP Bullingdon and HMP Spring Hill. In the meantime excellent news of a collaboration with HMP Rochester – to support mentee offenders across area boundaries – more tomorrow!!
Tim sets off – 1st July !
YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN BY:
Clicking here to sponsor via the online campaign page
(http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/Dignityonrelease) OR
Scanning the adjacent QR code with your phone camera function and following the instructions. You can also sponsor via bank transfer directly into the Thames Valley Partnership bank account – email bron@thamesvalleypartnership.org.uk for account details and please reference your donation ‘NL Walk’. Or the old fashioned way … send a cheque to Finance Dept, Thames Valley Partnership, The Coach House, Aston Sandford, Bucks HP17 8JB (cheques made out to ‘Thames Valley Partnership’ but mark it ‘NL Walk’ on the back for reference please.)
Please help publicise the walk to your own friends, contacts, networks, twitter accounts etc. – increasing awareness will help use raise more funds !
New Leaf provides a through the gate mentoring service to mentees when leaving prison at the end of their sentences (find out more about New Leaf here). Mentees are matched, whilst still in custody, with trained, volunteer mentors who collect them on the day of release, providing practical support (e.g. a community pack of essentials, suitable clothing, transport and help with temporary accommodation). An average ‘collection day support’ costs New Leaf £350. Volunteers continue to meet with their mentees regularly, for a minimum of 12 weeks, to support them in the community as they work towards their re-settlement – this costs a further £400.
In comparison, mentees will leave prison with a discharge grant of only £46. This was fixed in the 1990s and has not risen with inflation. If it had it would still only be worth £83. They are released in the clothes with which they arrived (often unsuitable for the time of year and unwashed) . State benefits take time to organise and come through. These issues will be further highlighted in a letter to the MOJ, Petty France which we will be delivering during Tim’s walk.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND WATCH THIS SPACE
FOR UPDATES ON THE WALK!
