Welcome to the latest Shine newsletter providing news and updates on the development and delivery of the Shine Women’s Mentoring Service.
It is intended not only for immediate delivery and support partners but the wider stakeholder community – in local authorities, other third sector organisations and observers of the criminal justice world. Please feel free to circulate to your colleagues.
Blog: Sharron Stirrat
Shine Operational Lead
Welcome to another newsletter. There's a lot happening across Shine. What a great job our mentors are doing - everyone is really busy. Just take a look at our performance, we continue to exceed targets and I see great outcomes for women. There have been challenges along the way but we have been able to face them by working together - the partnership really does work! We should be pleased with ourselves after the recent audit of our work which shows that we are making improvements in the service which are really helping women.
Shine has been in discussions with the SPS regarding their women's strategy and future plans for the women’s estate. We will continue to work with TSOs in order to make the move from custody to community as smooth as possible. The creation of a women’s passport has been welcomed as a support for keeping women in touch with services, once released from custody The challenge for the future is in sustaining the service in the long-term, but we are working on it.
My thanks goes to the Shine central team, all of our mentors and the women themselves for the invaluable contribution which they have made, making the Shine service such a success!
Shine: A mentee’s journey
The journey a woman takes from initial engagement with Shine to months or sometimes years later can sometimes be told by our Shine mentors. Two examples illustrate this:
At Access to Industry one of our first ever women to engage with the Service recently contacted her original mentor Jennifer. This previous mentee had managed to go to college and complete a SWAT Access course at Newbattle Abbey College and has now been given an unconditional offer for an undergraduate degree course in Psychology at Napier University.
More recently Sarah, one of our Shine mentors in Sacro, reported how she has worked with a woman for three months now, following the mentee’s first experience in prison. Her main support needs were building her confidence and getting her back into work. She’s engaged really well and, through support, is now about to start full time work. There’s been no further offending and she has almost completed her Home Detention Curfew.
Shine - Annual report
Shine is shortly to launch its annual report for year 2016/2017. This will provide information on how the Service has grown and matured in the past 12 months: the successes and challenges and through cases studies and other media highlight some of the achievements of women supported by Shine. It sets out how the Service performed against its Key Performance Indicators and outlines some of the current developments that will in the coming year lend themselves to further service progression.
One of the challenges that Shine faces is keeping in contact with women on remand. Following discussions with stakeholders and partners, Shine has designed a credit card sized plastic card with a message providing a Freephone contact number for Shine. Through the support of the Scottish Prison Service we will see this card put into every women’s bag, not just those on remand.
Across Scotland, Across our Partners
Access to Industry recently hosted a Business Challenge Day at Polmont Young Offenders Institution. The event, in partnership with Mitie and Scottish Prison Service (SPS) was based on the “Dragon’s Den” television show and saw groups of Polmont students “pitch” a business idea to other participants and external “associates” nominated by Mitie.
18 young people and a matching number of ‘business associates’ worked in teams of six to create a business idea and then generate finance and marketing strategies to support the concept, before presenting the idea to their peers and general audience.
Each ‘candidate’ was presented with a certificate for their participation, guaranteeing them a job interview with Mitie on liberation for any suitable vacancy advertised.
This was the first time that Mitie had delivered the Business Challenge Day in a Scottish prison and the first time they had facilitated it in a young offender’s institution anywhere in the United Kingdom.
Apex Scotland’s manager covering Shine provision in Dumfries and Galloway Mhairi Ross featured in a blog spot recently on the Community Justice Scotland’s website. In it she reflected on the development of the service provision in the region and highlighted some of the work and benefits of Shine’s Women Mentoring Service. See full blog article here.
Barnardo’s director, Jonathan Whalley recently travelled 1000 miles on an electric unicycle across the UK to raise vital funds for vulnerable children. The challenge entailed 10-14 hours of standing up and riding each day averaging around 100 miles.
Mr Whalley took on the challenge to raise funds as well as to highlight the breadth and variety of Barnardo’s work across the UK.
At Circle in East Lothian they have recently delivered their second Pregnancy Support group, in partnership with First Step in Musselburgh. The group is run to support women who are using substances in pregnancy, as well as other vulnerable mums-to-be in the local area. Circle delivered an eight week programme which included topics such as attachment, labour and birth, healthy eating in pregnancy and first aid.
Turning Point Scotland formally launched their latest social enterprise last month. On April 18th Rosie’s Garden in Perth and Kinross was officially opened. A tree was planted to mark the occasion and plants were available for sale. Colleagues from the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society and Trellis were present and have supported the development of Rosie’s Garden.
Support worker Derry Meredith said: “The people-plant relationship works very well together. I see the people come together and grow in self-esteem and confidence. Their skills have certainly grown an awful lot.”
Sacro has received additional funding for its Bright Choices service.
Through its Tampon Tax Fund, the UK Government has awarded a grant to the Bright Choices project. Bright Choices is a Lottery-funded project, led by Sacro in partnership with ELREC and MCFB and providing a range of services to individuals and families affected by Honour Abuse and Honour-Based Violence (HBV). The award will fund a new worker post for three years, the role to include education and outreach work to raise awareness of FGM and the hazards to health associated with it.
Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General Ben Gummer MP visited Sacro’s national office in Edinburgh to meet the Bright Choices staff and discuss the work of the service at first hand.
The Wise Group has recently reported success in using the Simon Community Self-Directed Support pilot project. This project offers ways of accessing funding and is available from 1st April this year. It is hoped that through offering service users the opportunity to – through a small amount of money – have more choice over how the money is spent to help improve their current situation, there will be real benefits to their health and well-being.
Venture Trust has provided figures for their Next Steps programme. Next steps has a five day wilderness journey at its core provided to women referred from Shine mentors and in need of intensive personal development support.
Over the last three years Next Steps has reached 650 women, with 247 being supported through all phases of the programme. Of these 67% showed greater stability and reduced risk of reconviction. 120 women moved into employment, training, education or volunteering in this period.
At Robertson Trust over 220 Robertson scholars recently attended their annual March meeting at Strathclyde University to hear about opportunities available to them through our bursary scheme.
The event is one of the highlights of the Scholarship calendar and this year Robertson Trust welcomed Sir Peter Scott, the Scottish Government's Commissioner on Fair Access, who praised the attitude, drive and talent of the scholars and spoke of his admiration for the work being done by the bursary scheme in widening access to higher education.
There were presentations from current Robertson ambassadors, who represent the Trust at universities across Scotland to help younger scholars settle.
Two live interviews took place on stage; the first around professional mentoring opportunities and the second around internships. As well as looking at the self-development benefits of taking part in an internship, the interview also gave scholars the opportunity to hear more about the benefits of hosting an intern from an employers' perspective.
Case Study - Elaine
Elaine was fleeing domestic abuse and had no idea what to do or where to turn. During her time in the abusive relationship, Elaine would use amphetamines and would shoplift as a way of coping and ‘escaping’. She felt these were the only things in her life where she had full control. She decided where and when she would shoplift and when she would use amphetamines, everything else in her life was controlled by her partner. During her involvement with Shine, Elaine found refuge in a women’s aid shelter and was able to leave the abusive relationship and successfully managed to remain on ‘good terms’ with her ex-partner for the benefit of their two children.
Elaine has worked hard and has taken the steps needed to get her life back on track and has grown more confidence during the past six months.
Elaine has not used any illegal substances since leaving her partner and when she appeared in court on her final two charges she was admonished, the Court acknowledging she was making positive changes in her life.
Elaine was recently offered her own tenancy and with the support of Shine has accessed various funding opportunities to help her turn this house into a home. For the first time in a long time, Elaine is now able to think positively about her future. She believes the support she received from Shine has been vital in helping her get to this good place in her life.
[The mentee’s name has been changed in above article.]