About Us

When someone goes to prison, families are plunged into a bewildering world of  emotional and practical difficulty. As well as suffering the loss of their loved-one, families face social stigma, insecure housing, poverty and lack of information. Children may be subject to disrupted schooling bullying and are 2-3 times more likely to face mental health problems than their peers. 

 Despite this, there is no statutory support for prisoners’ families.

In 2013, we noticed a gap in services for prisoners’ families in Sussex.  We spent time talking to families and other professionals about what was needed.  We were very grateful to the initial support from the Worthing Lions, the Kelly Trust and The Allen Lane Foundation which allowed us to start putting our plans in action. 

We started by training volunteers to work at Sussex courts. These volunteers offer emotional and practical support throughout the trial and at point of sentence. 

This was a completely new service for the county and our director Rachelle worked hard to forge relationships and build up referral pathways. The service developed and  we now support more than 1,000 families in court a year. 

We started our first support group in 2015. Meeting in cafes, we quickly discovered that families were keen to share their knowledge and expertise as well as giving each other emotional support. The support grew and we gradually branched out to outings including trips to the pier, pantomimes and afternoon teas. 

In 2017, we started to support our local prisons HMP Lewes and Ford with help on family days and running the visitors’ tea bar. In 2018, we worked with our partners Spurgeons to support the running of the new visitors’ centre at HMP Lewes. As well as contributing furnishings and a brightly coloured mural by artist Guy Parker-Rees, our volunteers provided emotional advice and practical support, signposting families to our community services. 

In 2020, generous grants from the National Lottery and the Tudor Trust meant that we could expand our team and employed three outreach workers and a project support officer. 

Lockdown meant that we couldn’t meet families face to tace but we continued to support our families remotely through these challenging times. 

With an enthusiastic and experienced team in place, we are looking forward to reaching out to even more families. We are currently reviewing our diversity policies and practices to ensure we are reaching out to all families who need support.