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Website version note: This is a quick and dirty conversion of the original newsletter to show it on the website. Any errors are solely due to my lack of care and attention to detail. To see it as intended, please see the printable, PDF format. |
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THE SHANNON TRUST NEWSLETTER |
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EDITION
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JULY 2005
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CENTRE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD FOR THE
SHANNON TRUST Christopher Morgan collects the top award from the Right
Honourable David Cameron MP at an evening award ceremony. However, it was more than the money, the awards were presented altogether
to twelve charities, all small and motivated to change their corner of the
world. The recurrent theme of the
evening was ‘A single life saved is the whole world for that person ’. This is a huge testimony to all our
volunteers who have succeeded in changing so many lives through their dogged
perseverance of ensuring that The Shannon Reading Plan is facilitated in our
prisons. SIMPLE AND OBVIOUS
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This
autumn, the BBC launches its biggest adult literacy campaign ever – RaW - a
fresh, exciting, 3 year drive to engage the passions and interests of the
nation. RaW
aims to reach the 12 million UK adults with intermediate reading skills -
often practical people who find reading and writing uninspiring and
irrelevant, but want help in specific areas, from filling in forms and
reading sports reports to writing to their children. RaW will use an
entertainment-led approach to draw in adults who typically avoid informal
learning, providing a raft of resources and activities, including BBC1
entertainment and factual programmes, games and quizzes, a magazine,
specially commissioned books and online and DVD resources. RaW
is an ideal next step for graduates of the Toe-by-Toe programme, as well as
being suitable for all other intermediate readers. The Shannon Trust is supporting the BBC to set up pilot
projects in a number of prisons and we look forward to sharing our
experiences with you in the next newsletter. RaW
offers: o
Free learning resources
for adult learners o
A range of opportunities for
involvement that learners can pick and choose o
Continuity for learners
leaving prison For more information on how you can get involved
with RaW and sign up for free learning resources, visit bbc.co.uk/raw/campaign |
OLSU REPORT NEAR COMPLETION…
The report from the OLSU is very near publication and in the meantime we have been privy to its findings which are very positive. There is a separate sheet inside this newsletter of ‘the summary of the summary’ which is all we are currently allowed to release. The Trust is very optimistic that this will enable us to have smoother facilitation within our prisons and encourage our progress into the community. We really need the SUPPORT, FACILITATION and MONITORING of our scheme from all the staff in all our establishments, but really believe that this is a scheme run by offenders for offenders; enhancing the lives of all involved and, indeed, those around them. It has become increasingly
clear that illiteracy is one of the last taboos and our confidential, quiet
and peer pressure method of trying to alleviate this integral problem in our
society seems to be working – we should stick at it for a lot of these people
we are the only game in town! |
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THE SHANNON TRUST FREEPOST Nat 3703, Crowborough.TN6 3BR Tel/Fax 0845 458 2641 |
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BEST FOOT FORWARD
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The Toe by
Toe Team at Blundeston – |
HMP Blundeston hatched an idea between officer Dave Banks, Tessa Sunnocks (our representative) and the then Co-ordinator mentor—and it grew into the Best Foot Forward Day, and was recognised as a whole prison effort to making it all turn into a huge success. On a day when the workshops were closed the prison gym was turned into a Toe by Toe haven with every stall bedecked with their imaginative logo. The stalls represented every department within the prison, health, the multi faith chaplaincy, FTC, the workshops, education , the library and Toe by Toe stall. The Toe by Toe mentors placed themselves at each stall and wearing distinctive T-shirts supplied by the CARATS team were keen to encourage mentees to come forward and learn to read. One of the mentees was also sitting at the Toe by Toe stall again as an encouragement for more people to take advantage of Toe by Toe. The other inmates visited the gym in turn, wing by wing and only collecting signatures from at least five stalls they could enter a lottery and the head chef promised to cook a meal of their choice– huge encouragement! A great initiative from
Blundeston and we hope more will follow—it is a great awareness
achievement. THANKS |
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STRATEGY PLUS US As you know the education of juveniles
(under 18s) in the offending estate is the responsibility of the Youth
Justice Board (YJB). They employ Learning
Support Assistants (LSA) as mentors and we welcome their help, although we
should encourage them to give young offenders the chance to mentor as
well. It will give them some pride
and there may well be children willing to learn from them rather than from an
adult. We have recently forged and alliance
with the Plus Strategy Team who have been given the responsibility for
juvenile literacy training by the YJB.
They plan to have four paid representatives in every juvenile establishment. They want to use Toe by Toe we have told
them they can get them free from us provided they follow our three
rules. We are looking to create new
readers as always. This could be an
exciting new channel in the juvenile estate where we have previously
encountered difficulties. It would be very helpful if those of you with a
juvenile location (either YOI or STC) could get to know the representatives
of the Plus Strategy Team in your locations.
They know all about us and value our alliance and they should be able
t o help us too. All of which, is of
course, theory and we would be grateful for feedback and how it is working. |
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POA + NAPO = NOMS
A young man as recently released from
prison where he had started to learn to read for the first time in his life;
a week after his release he returned and asked if he could go back in to
finish Toe by Toe, he could not find anyone to help outside. The Shannon Trust could not let this go
unanswered and luckily for us NAPO agreed and will support us, through their union of probation officers, in the
same way as the POA —we believe we are a first. A first , The Shannon Trust with the
trade unions to show complete through-care for the offending estate. Hopefully another example for others to
follow. Our common aim is to reduce offending
and we know that one choice for offenders is learning to read. We offer that choice and the unions agree.
SIMPLE AND OBVIOUS We will need help we are once again in
our early stages, but are meeting with a warm reception having made such a
success in the secure estate. At last
we are known now and have some credibility– help us take it forward. “Indeed, it is a perfect example of working in partnership with the
voluntary sector”
Harry Fletcher of NAPO |
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HMP THE VERNE….CELEBRATING
SUCCESS
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We had our big 'annual' TbyT meeting at
The Verne. When I arrived there were 32
inmates and assembled in the
Chapel. After the photo and a
couple of short congratulatory speeches,
we made certificate presentations to large numbers of mentors and
mentees. We were slightly 'loose' with the interpretation of 'completed', but
so many have made such marvellous efforts to progress that all more than deserved their certificates. Mo,
the Chapel Orderly is an expert at calligraphy and everyone put their names
in pencil on the certificates for him to write the names in copper
type. We then had readings from their T by T
books by almost every mentee - one or two on the final pages, others near the
beginning. All were supported by their mentors. The sense of achievement by
mentees AND mentors was an experience to behold. There was long applause
between each reading. There were Urdu, French, Spanish and English speaking
mentees. Katrina has done a magnificent
job building and maintaining this level of participants and genuine
enthusiasm. Robin Collis |
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A single mentor at HMP Lewes has reported to us that he has taught seventy people to read, from all backgrounds and nationalities—is this a record or is there someone else out there who has taught even more people with Toe by Toe? Do let us know. One of the great successes for this mentor is that his first mentee went on to win the Sussex Learner of the Year Achievement Award and below is an extract from his application for this prestigious award. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE MENTORS WHO ARE CHANGING
THE WORLD JUST A LITTLE BIT …….. TOE BY TOE “My first challenge was to believe in
myself and place my trust in others who told me I was not stupid, but
capable. The first thing I did was to
have lessons on a one-to-one basis with Toe by Toe for dyslexia and reading
which proved to me I could read. I
then joined the education department maths and literacy classes and was again
trained on a one-to-one basis and found I was coping to the extent that I
took exams which six months earlier I would have said was impossible. My difficulty was all the years I thought
I could not learn which I have proved to myself is not true!” |
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HMYOI BRINSFORD “We are
still waiting our first success in terms of finishing the book. This, however, plays a secondary part, as
the benefits out way the ultimate goal.
Both mentors and mentees are gaining so much, not only in terms of
reading ability, but also in developing better communication skills and self
esteem.” Literacy and Numeracy
Co-ordinator. |
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FIRST GRADUATE FROM HMP GARTH This
picture tells of a remarkable young man on a journey of perseverance, hope
and redemption. A story about the rehabilitative
power of education. He is the first
inmate to complete the Toe by Toe course at HMP Garth. The impact of this programme has been
outstanding. This is one of the most
telling arguments for the rehabilitative power of education. He was considered highly disruptive and
out of control. He was too
embarrassed to admit that he could not read or write. It is no surprise
therefore, that he found solace from his sense of isolation by being
confrontational. With support from
his mentor and a sympathetic prison system he can now read and write. But perhaps most remarkable is the change
in his behaviour since he started the course. Remy has had no nickings and has gone back to education. It is no exaggeration to say that
education in general and Toe by Toe in particular, has transformed Remy’s
present and hopefully his future. Abridged from an article in
THE LINK. |
AN
EXTRACT FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE REPORT INTO PRISON EDUCATION MENTORING 281.
Another approach to learning that has impressed the Committee is the
mentoring activity that is being undertaken in prisons, largely by charitable
organisations such as the Toe-by-Toe scheme that teaches prisoners to
read. Christopher Morgan MBE Director
of the Shannon Trust, described the success of the Toe-by-Toe scheme to us: ‘…once we got started, we discovered just the size
of the problem, because there are 30,000 prisoners in our prisons at any one
time who cannot read (above the standard age of 11). There is no way that they can get given the
one-to-one attention of professional teachers and a number of them refuse to
go the professional teachers as they have bad memories from school, but they
will learn from another inmate … we started to make a great deal of progress
18 months ago and we have now reached something over 100 prisons in England.’ |
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VOLUNTARY SERVICES
CO-ORDINATORS - Each prison has one and like everything in prisons
they are either hugely proactive or do not even know that they have been assigned
with the post – The Shannon Trust thinks that it is hugely important to make
a contact with these people and agree a contract with them; we are so
vulnerable to the changes of our enthusiasts within each prison that to have
a contract would be hugely beneficial,
Our ‘wish list’ is available from the head office and we will always
aspire in Shannon Trust terms to HMP Utopia!!! |
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THE SHANNON TRUST SIMPLE AND OBVIOUS The rules of the Shannon
Trust Reading Plan are simple: lessons should be one to one (we prefer this
to be offender to offender), the lessons are at least five times a week, but
no longer than twenty minutes, when these are adhered to we supply a manual
called Toe by Toe for free. It is self explanatory enabling anyone who can
read to teach anyone who cannot to read and usually write within six
months. Prison is an opportunity for
the 48% + who have no useful literacy skills to give themselves a choice in
life—we offer that choice for free.
It costs the tax payer nothing and the Trust far less than £100 per
new reader, but we are grateful to our sponsors:- The Monument Trust, The JJ
Foundation, Esme Fairbairn, J Paul Getty Foundation, Gilchrist Educational
Trust, Swan Mountain, Wills 1965 Trust, The Pears Foundation sponsoring the
Centre for Social Justice prizes, The Oakdale Trust and many other private
donors. Their generous support makes it all possible. This newsletter has
been sponsored by the BBC. THE SHANNON TRUST,
FREEPOST Nat 3703, Crowborough.TN6 3BR Tel/Fax 0845 458 2641 WWW.SHANNONTRUST.COM CHERYL@SHANNONTRUST.COM |
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