posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer,Schools and Learning

Click here to read the Families Outside Impact Report 2016/2017

It gives me great pleasure to enclose Families Outside’s Impact Report for 2016/2017.

As you will see, it’s been another successful year at Families Outside. We continue to reach more and more families through both our Helpline and our Regional Family Support Coordinators, and with new staff covering the Highlands and Dumfries & Galloway, we are very proud to be the only national charity supporting families affected by imprisonment across Scotland.

We have developed our training offering and, as well as continuing the success of our teacher CPD sessions, we are seeing increased numbers of prison staff and police enrolling on our courses. This increased appetite for training shows how the landscape has changed in the last 25 years and proves that we are another step closer to removing the stigma associated with the imprisonment of a family member.

We continue to create unique resources that are not only having positive impacts in Scotland and the UK, but also across Europe and as far as Australia and New Zealand. As we monitor the issues that families face through our support teams, we will be even better placed to create resources that create solutions.

Our involvement with Visitor Centres has changed dramatically over the last 18 months: our direct management of the centre at HMP Addiewell ended with the financial year following the introduction of the National Visitor Centre Coordinator post. Through this new post, however, we are able to offer a national strategic function, supporting all providers and ensuring consistency of practice.

We continue to lobby policy and decision makers across Scotland to make sure that families are of primary importance within the Criminal Justice System and the wider national context. Although we now offer direct support for families affected by imprisonment, we remain true to our core purpose set out 25 years ago – voicing the needs of families affected by imprisonment.

Few of the achievements highlighted in the report would be possible without your continued support. Therefore, on behalf of the team and the thousands of families we help each year, thank you! Together we create the silver lining that the cloud of imprisonment can place on the children and families left behind.

Kind regards,
Nancy
Prof Nancy Loucks OBE
Chief Executive

Families Outside Support & Information Helpline: 0800 254 0088