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Bridgend County Borough Council is leading on an innovative, new project to promote the enjoyment of reading for pleasure in the prisons in Wales. It is a two year project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and developed in partnership with the five Prisons and their four local Public Library Authorities.
The partnership is made up of:
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Bridgend Library and Information Service
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Cardiff Library and Information Service
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Monmouthshire Library and Information Service
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Swansea Library and Information Service
- HMP Parc B Category private - 900 prisoners
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HMP Cardiff B Category local/training - 750 prisoners
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HMP Prescoed D Category open -170 prisoners
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HMP Usk C Category - 242 prisoners
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HMP Swansea B Category local - 425 prisoners
The project aims to increase access to and promote the enjoyment of reading for pleasure, which will aid learning and personal development in prisons across Wales, and to facilitate the continued use of library services to support reading as part of reintegration.
The main objectives are to:
- Establish and support reading groups in each prison;
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Demonstrate that reading can be fun by providing opportunities for; professionals (authors, storytellers, Librarians etc) to visit prisons to read, and impart their own enthusiasm about literature through animated delivery
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Promote the project within the prison;
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Encourage involvement in book reviews;
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Produce an exit pack to encourage continuity of reading from ‘inside’ to ‘outside’;
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Work with existing prison partnerships – ie Basic Skills Agency, local colleges etc to support ongoing learning activities;
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Provide appropriate information for the partners to take to national conferences to promote the project;
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Set up and run monitoring systems.
Family based projects
In order to realise objective number three – to promote the project within the prison and beyond - Louise Richards, the Reader in Residence, actively became involved in work to support both prisoners and their families. The following quotes from the Action For Prisoners Families Website highlight the importance of supporting family links.
‘Over 150,000 people are committed into custody each year. Many are first-time offenders and their families are devastated by their imprisonment.’
‘Today, over 125,000 children in England and Wales have a parent in prison
prisoners are up to six times less likely to reoffend if they maintain strong family ties whilst in prison.’
Action For Prisoners Families
Reading is Fundamental
Reading is Fundamental (RiF) is a National Literacy Trust project, which provides children aged 0-19 with exciting opportunities to choose books to keep for themselves. Rif events are a great way to involve parents and demonstrate the fun and power of reading.
Maintaining contact between children and their father, whilst he is in prison can be a difficult undertaking. By applying for and securing RiF funding for Prescoed, Parc and Cardiff prisons, it has been possible to support the family links in a positive and exciting way.
As part of the Storybook Dads project, fathers are encouraged to record stories on disk to send to their children. The story CDs are then sent to the family home in a package with the beautiful books bought as part of the RiF project. It is hoped that being able to hear their fathers’ voice, at the touch of a button, and make the link with books and reading for pleasure will provide that vital link, and also create a reading culture within the family unit, which will be continued upon the prisoners’ release.
The Louise Richards has also been actively involved in the promotion and setting up of Family days in Prescoed, Swansea and Cardiff prisons.
Prescoed’s first ever Family event took place in Children’s Book Week October 2005. It was the start of a strong partnership with the Basic Skills Agency’s Language and Play Project, the Prison Learning and Skills Department, Monmouthshire Libraries Early Years Worker and the Reader in Residence. The fathers and their families met children’s author, Daniel Lee, and joined in with a range of book-related craft activities, storytelling and Nursery Rhymes. Each child was also able to choose a book to take home with them, as well as receiving a craft pack and resources produced by the Basic-Skills Agency and Bookstart promoting the importance of playing with and sharing books with young babies and children. Subsequent successful integration of the RiF project into a parenting course and sustained Family Visits run in the prison has resulted in a visit from HRH Princess Ann and Elmer the Elephant.
Quotes from prisoners and their families have included:
‘I think that today was an excellent opportunity for children to play with their fathers. It was a fun-filled afternoon with plenty to do and very helpful staff around to lend a hand with activities. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon.’
‘I think today was an excellent day and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was wonderful for the children to spend time enjoying themselves with their mum and dad together.’ (This comment from a couple where both parents had been in prison for the same offence – the project has been a lynchpin in maintaining the family bond.)
‘Having crafts, activities and the Education team available has made a huge difference to the children’s experience of visiting Prescoed. It has given the children and their fathers something to be involved in together instead of them sitting eating junk food from boredom. It is a vast improvement.’
In order to further expand the creative writing skills of individuals it has been possible to hold a number of creative writing and storytelling sessions to support fathers in creating their own stories and books for their children.
In May 2006, a storytelling workshop was held in Cardiff prison with the Writer in Residence and Pauline Hopwood, Director of the Writers in Prison Network. In this session fathers were given the tools of how to tell their own stories to record and send home to their children. Parc prison hosted a number of creative writing sessions with author Daniel Lee, in 2005 and as a result several children have received books made by their Dads for them to treasure.
Life story – Prescoed
Working in partnership with the BBC RaW, Wales campaign and the Basic-Skills Agency Wales, it was possible to encourage and support one young father to write his life story. Working with author Phil Forder, ‘Through the Eyes of a Goldfish’ is an allegorical tale of the life of an absent father, explaining to his young son, why he has been away for so long. The story is to possibly be published on the BBC RaW website during 2007 as a celebration of the author’s achievements.
Audio Book Dads – Parc
The Audio Book Dads Project was completed in December 2006 in Parc prison with Caspar Walsh. Fathers worked with their children to write and illustrate their own stories. The stories were read by the father and edited onto a CD for the children to listen to whenever they choose. They were also produced as books for the family to enjoy as a lasting celebration of the project. Prisoner’s children and family were invited for a special family visit to celebrate the conclusion of the Audio Book Dads project.
On 15 December 2006, Laurence Bater, Caspar Walsh and prisoners gave a short presentation about the project and its effect on the men. Short extracts from each story were played and each child received a special copy of the story written by their fathers (produced by the prison Library staff and the art department) and a CD of the father reading the story, with special sound effects.
Families were also encouraged to spend quality time together, with simple Christmas craft activities produced by the Library. Refreshments were provided by the prison to encourage a relaxed, informal atmosphere.
The project was a great success with several prisoners giving short speeches about how much they had enjoyed the project, and how it had helped to support family links and contact. The children were extremely proud and happy to receive their special stories and CDs.
The success of Free with Words, Wales can be attributed to the strength of partnerships with other Service providers in the area and beyond – objective number 6 - Work with existing prison partnerships – ie Basic Skills Agency, local colleges etc to support ongoing learning activities. By sharing resources, contacts, links and ideas for supporting individuals and their young children; and by open communication, the agencies are working hard to ensure that each person should achieve their full potential.
Partnerships so far have included:
- Basic-Skills Agency Wales – funding and resources
- BBC RaW Campaign
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Language and Play – a Basic-Skills funded project in Wales
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Academi – Welsh Arts Council funding body
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Reading is Fundamental – National Literacy Trust project
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Writers in Prison Network
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Sure Start
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Sainsbury’s, Bridgend - funding
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Top children’s book publishers including Walker, Penguin, Harper Collins, Pan Macmillan and Random House– donations of books
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British Dyslexic Association
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Book Start
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Local reading groups
The project has already and will continue to encourage readers to explore and share their own experiences with other prisoners, as well as creating positive links with outside groups. Within the prison environment the Library is often seen as a safe and welcoming place, where an individual can explore a variety of new horizons through books, and a range of activities offered within it’s space – including Reading Groups, Storybook Dads, local newspapers and author visits to name but a few.
The Free with Words project is making inroads into social inclusion in the Valleys, cities and rural areas of Wales. It will hopefully become a sustainable part of the socially inclusive agenda of the profession. The work needs to be continued to have the positive effect of increasing literacy, basic skills and broadening reading for pleasure to all ethnic groups. The main question that remains is what Community Libraries and the profession as a whole can do to support it in achieving that aim.
Louise Richards
Reader in Residence
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