L-R: Hannah Asprey Smith, National Lottery Funding Officer – Warwickshire, Coventry & Leicestershire; Mark Pawsey MP; Dave Proctor, Futures Unlocked Company Secretary & Treasurer; John Powell, Operations Manager for Futures Unlocked; Laura Halford, Community Chaplain at Futures Unlocked; David Kelham, High Sheriff of Warwickshire
Rugby MP Mark Pawsey joined the High Sheriff of Warwickshire, David Kelham, to see how a local charity is benefiting from £90,000 to help ex-offenders to re-join the community.
Futures Unlocked, based at the Hope Centre in the heart of Rugby, has been working to help rehabilitate those released from prison since 2006. Over that time, they have worked with over 900 clients, as well as a variety of agencies, businesses, and charities to reduce re-offending rates and support ex-prisoners in leading crime-free lives. Futures Unlocked has 33 voluntary mentors, who act as valuable support for their clients in the important first few months after they are released. This includes meeting people at the gates of prison once they are released and providing them with immediate help to get their lives back on track.
John Powell, Futures Unlocked’s Operations Manager, Laura Halford, Community Chaplain & David Procter, a Trustee and Treasurer for Futures Unlocked, spoke with Mark and the High Sheriff about how the £90,000 grant will enable them to continue this work. The National Lottery Funding will ensure that they can continue to train new mentors and provide tailored support for clients, due to the increasingly complex referrals Futures Unlocked are receiving. Currently they are supporting 45 individuals, some of whom are still incarcerated and awaiting release.
Each client that Futures Unlocked works with can receive up to a year-long commitment to help them return to community life, and they work with clients from across Warwickshire. Futures Unlocked’s programme is considered extremely successful with reoffending being 30% lower amongst their clients and is one of the most effective ways of rehabilitating ex-offenders so that they can go on to become productive members of society.
Mark commented:
“Futures Unlocked is doing great work to cut re-offending rates and help ex-prisoners in Rugby turn their lives around. The £90,000 grant from the National Lottery’s Community Fund will enable them to continue to expand what they are doing and provide valuable support to those released from prison and help them navigate those all important first few days and weeks after their release. I was also interested to hear about the growing complexity of the referrals they are receiving, and how the grant will help them to provide more tailored support for their clients.”
David Procter, Treasurer for Futures Unlocked added:
"Without the funding provided by the National Lottery Community Fund, and our other funders, we would not be able to provide support to our clients to resettle them back into the community at the end of their custodial sentence. We have shown over the years that supporting ex-offenders that they can lead crime free lives, resettle into the community which in itself will make our communities safer. We welcome the support shown by Mark and David in the work that we do and look forward to working with them in the future in supporting ex-offenders."