Fiona Sample and James Stoddart from The Oswin Project spoke to us about how they are creating second chances for people who have experienced the criminal justice system and how the Foundation's funding and development support has strengthened the charity.
Fiona Sample is the founder and CEO of the Oswin Project. She spoke with us about how the charity is supporting people who have been in the criminal justice system, and how the Foundation’s funding has enabled them to expand their enterprises and reach more people.
The Oswin Project creates second chances for people who have been in the criminal justice system, through training, employment opportunities, and mentoring. The charity's main aim is to ensure that people are involved in some form of purposeful activity, that they are doing something meaningful and learning new skills – both inside prison and once they are released. Above all, we are committed to walking alongside our clients and supporting them in rebuilding their lives.
Currently our prisons are dangerously overcrowded – the UK has the highest prison population in Europe. However, most prisoners do not pose a danger, they require rehabilitation and support to address the mistakes they have made. Sadly, this seldom happens in prison. High reoffending rates, particularly in the Northeast of England, where we are based, show that the system is not working. It is largely left to the third sector to address these failings.
Prisoners are often being released back into the community with little or no support in place. The three main needs on leaving prison are accommodation, employment, and supported integration back into their families and communities. Most individuals end their sentences without any of these components in place. Some are being released from prisons with a tent to sleep in. The Oswin Project primarily focused on training, work experience and employment but we also provide a supportive network and sense of community, and we signpost our clients to our partners who are experts in other areas, from housing to healthcare.
The Oswin Project firmly believes that the key to reducing reoffending rates is to provide individuals with the support they need – both in prison and when they are released so helping them to reintegrate into society. The charity has a bakery and Café 16 and runs a horticultural project in HMP Northumberland. Here we provide prisoners with the opportunity to develop new skills and gain qualifications. The bakery and the gardens are linked to our projects in the community. The goods made in the bakery by prisoners are sold in our Café 16 in HMP Northumberland and our Café 16 in Newcastle Cathedral. The bakery and the gardens in the prison also supply our farm shop just outside the prison gates with a wonderful selection of fresh vegetables, herbs, fruit and baked products. Any surplus is given to the Amble Foodbank. Alongside these initiatives, our clients are supported by one-to-one mentoring. We have an amazing band of volunteers, a lot of whom have backgrounds in social services or probation.
The Oswin Project has built a bridge of opportunity between prison and the outside world. We connect with people at any stage of their journey through the criminal justice system, both when they are in prison and when they are released. Individuals can come and volunteer or work with us in Café 16, or in the farm shop, or they can get involved with our Inside and Out team which trains and offers work opportunities for prison leavers in forestry, painting and decorating, landscaping and general building maintenance.
Clients may not stay with us long-term; they might just volunteer with us as a route back into the workplace. It is challenging for those with a criminal record to get a job as employers often feel they may pose a risk. At the Oswin Project people can build a work history, gain experience and qualifications. Once they have worked for us, we can give them a reference, and this helps them secure employment.
Changing perceptions is key to everything we do. Most of our enterprises are customer facing which helps break down barriers and change attitudes. It is about creating opportunities to decrease negative perceptions.
Fiona Sample shares how the Foundation's funding and support has helped the charity
The unrestricted funding that we have received from the Foundation is invaluable. A lot of people are very happy to give money for a one off event or something tangible, for instance a coffee machine with their logo. No one can see core funding, yet it is crucial to keep us operating.
– Fiona Sample, CEO and Founder of The Oswin Project
The Oswin Project’s aim is to become sustainable, to be able to run on the income that we generate from our enterprises, rather than relying on other sources of income which may not always be available. However, this is a slow process because our enterprises are not run on a commercial basis but to change lives. This means that we need to employ extra staff to ensure the right support in place. The funding from the Foundation has enabled us to do this while the income from our enterprises gradually increases.
The Oswin Project is now working with many more people then when we first received the Foundation’s funding. The Foundation has enabled significant growth in the support we can offer. Before the Foundations funding, we simply did not have the capacity to work with more people.
Aside from the financial support, we immensely appreciate the fact that the Foundation are also friends and advisors and have offered us and our clients many opportunities. Regional Manager, Neil has been central to this. He has always been available, interested and enthusiastic. This has been hugely beneficial, and we are very grateful.
“When I was in HMP Northumberland I had the opportunity to start working in the kitchens with the Oswin Project, making cakes and traybakes for the café. They mentored me too. I have PTSD from being in Afghanistan with the army and they helped me with that. It was good that they weren’t prison staff because I felt like I could talk to them about stuff.
When I got released, I started working here in the café the following week. They all knew my background, they mentored me, asked how I’m doing.
It’s like a family in here. We’re all connected. We’ve all done different offences. Different backgrounds, different lifestyles, but everyone’s been to prison, and it's so hard to get a job when you have been to prison. So, it’s good to be in an environment where people understand that, and all of the customers know our backgrounds as well.”
Fraser working in Café 16 in Newcastle Cathedral
More than 70% of the Oswin Project’s staff team are prison leavers, like James Stoddart who started as a volunteer and is now employed full-time as a Project Coordinator. He shared with us how the Foundation’s development support has helped him in his role, as well as the organisation as a whole.
Lloyds Bank Foundation stands out within the sector for the level of support they provide. Our Regional Manager, Neil, has been extremely supportive. He is constantly giving us useful information and chatting to us. We’ve been supported with developing our strategy, getting new IT equipment, and I’ve been able to attend a lot of trainings.
The connection with Lloyds Bank has also been useful. One of the common issues that people have coming out of prison is they don't have sufficient ID so it can be a challenge to open a bank account. But we’ve been able to connect with local Lloyds Branch managers to have a conversation about this and explain the issues. Now, if someone we work with has a problem opening a bank account, we can call a local branch manager and they can support that person with banking access, which is incredibly helpful.
We’ve had two sessions facilitated by Lloyds Bank on banking for ‘Oswinners’ – how we refer to the people we work with. It covered things like how to open a bank account, what to do if you have difficulties, how to manage your money and so on. And the people we work with said it was fantastic, they were really engaged and grateful.
- James Stoddart, Project Coordinator at The Oswin Project
James Stoddart shares how the Foundation's development support has helped him as an employee, as well as the people The Oswin Project support
I was put through the School of Social Entrepreneurs Trading Programme funded by Lloyds Bank. It helps charity staff like me to develop their trading enterprises. There were lots of charities that weren’t doing any trading yet, whereas we are already running several enterprises and I was able to talk about that and share my experience.
Even though we are further on that trading journey than others, it was still incredibly useful for me and I learned a lot. Some of the speakers were so inspirational and I just wanted to absorb everything they were saying. And it was nice to be able to share with others at the start of their journey and reassure them that they can do it, that it’s not as scary or hard as they are imagining.
I’m still in contact with a lot of the other charities and I’m supporting some of them as they set up their own enterprises. It’s good to be part of that peer support network and it also opens up new partnership opportunities.
I think one of our main strengths at The Oswin Project is that we are willing to take risks and we are willing to have a go at something and make mistakes and learn from them. We’re not going to run out of people who need our support – there’s always going to be people in prison and people leaving prison. And so, we are always imagining the next thing. There’s an urgency to do more and change the world as much as we can.
Everyone here knows we've got a past. Everyone is open about it. Everyone’s honest. I've worked in places where it's not like that. Here I feel like I'm not judged, and I can just be myself.
– Gavin, who is supported and employed by The Oswin Project at Café 16
It's absolutely fantastic. When I heard about The Oswin project, I thought it could be a great opportunity. I was cheffing years ago before joining the army originally. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, so this is the best form of rehabilitation for me.
– Ronnie, who is supported and employed by The Oswin Project at Café 16
Find out more about The Oswin Project by visiting their website www.oswinproject.org.uk
