WYCCP are recruiting now for new volunteers! The primary role of volunteer link workers is to work alongside the resettlement and family teams to provide support to men before and after release from prison and to provide support to the families of prisoners in the community.
We recruit volunteers from all walks of life; what they have in common is the desire to help people, a non- judgemental approach, reliability, a willingness to be trained and with some time to give each week.
We are so pleased to have new Volunteers join us! We cant do this without you! We are really looking forward to working with you.
We love their ‘ideal Link worker’ art work!
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate WYCCP's 18th birthday yesterday. We were delighted to welcome everyone to the office to share stories and memories, eat cake and look forward to our next 18 years!
WYCCP is nearly 18! Help us celebrate by donating to our BIRTHDAY APPEAL!
Supporting WYCCP will help men to stay out of prison. We know that at least 70% of the men we work with will be out of prison a year from release and longer – compared to the HMP Leeds average of just 36% of releases. We have a proven track record in making our communities safer and stronger.
www.justgiving.com/campaign/happybirthdayWYCCP
One man’s story of how through the gate support and partnership working can make a profound difference, providing hope, opportunity and the chance to build a brighter future.
Feedback from the men who we support is essential and helps us adapt and improve our exceptional service. We met this gentleman while he was still in prison, he has significant health concerns and was facing homelessness on release. Ron and Cat worked closely to provide through the gate support, helping to secure accommodation, assistance with health care and offering ongoing support to access benefits.
As ever at WYCCP our work doesn’t end with one positive outcome, we are here for men for as long as they need our help.
Support our work by donating to champion our special brand of person centred support and help to make our communities safer and stronger: www.wyccp.org.uk/donate-2
Simply delighted to share that, in partnership with Jigsaw Visitors Centre, we have been successful in receiving National Lottery funding for our Family Support: In, Out and Beyond Project to provide practical support as well as an innovative – free to access – counselling service to men leaving prison and their families.
We are so pleased to be able to report that, in spite of everything, throughout last year we provided 732 hours of support to 74 men in the community. Our most intensively supported service user received a massive 53 hours of support over the year. We are proud that we achieved 200 positive outcomes: supporting men into accommodation, with benefits and health issues as well as getting them into volunteering and training.
An update on our service as we enter lockdown 3…
WYCCP Resettlement Service will continue to operate throughout lockdown. Staff will be working mainly from home and are equipped to continue to provide comprehensive telephone support to all of our service users. There will be some staff presence in the office on a reduced number, rota system, so telephone messages will be responded to. We will undertake face to face support if it is absolutely essential.
We have received a number of new referrals over the Christmas period from men awaiting release and will continue to accept new referrals from the prison.
Our free counselling service will continue to run, providing telephone support.
The WYCCP team are all safe and well at present and will continue to provide much needed support to the men and families who we work with.
We are sending good wishes to all our service users, volunteers, colleagues and partners and hope for an unfolding of better things to come in 2021.
We’ve all shared a strange year. Here at WYCCP we’ve done our best to continue to support people throughout the pandemic – adapting how we work but continuing to do what we do best: providing intensive, tailored, person-centred support to men leaving prison and their families.
In spite of all the Covid restrictions we are proud to say that we have still managed to provide over 500 hours of support since the first lockdown in March. 42 men have received 3 hours or more of support and our most intensive service users has received 41 hours of support.
We’ve helped people to deal with loneliness and isolation as well as practical issues around money, health and accommodation. In fact, several of our guys have moved house in the last few months!
We have been delighted to welcome two volunteers back to the office so far to volunteer with us again. Here’s Britt’s story in her own words:
My first few weeks back to volunteering at WYCCP after lockdown: I am completing one half day a week and it is really good to be back and to see some familiar faces! All the team have made me feel really welcomed back and part of the team again. To settle back in to the swing of things there are resources available that I have found very useful before I came into the office, I watched the refresher videos and help sheets that have been made for us volunteers as reminders and top tips.
We are delighted to welcome Amy in to complete her Leeds Trinity University placement with us one half-day a week.
Amy is helping to support the keyworker team and is matched to a service user who she is meeting once a week.
You might recognise Amy: she has been a WYCCP volunteer since November 2019 and we’re looking forward to her putting her knowledge and experience to good use!
WYCCP Covid-19 Update – September 2020: referrals welcome
The WYCCP staff team are all back working in our office at HMP Leeds with health and safety precautions in place. Staff were home based between March and June and provided invaluable support to service users through telephone calls throughout lockdown.
We are accepting new referrals from men who will be returning to live in West Yorkshire after release from prison and for the families of men in HMP Leeds.
WYCCP’s office is closed for at least a month, in order to do our best to protect service users, volunteers and staff.
The team are all working remotely from home and our key-workers will continue to provide support to all service users in the community via telephone calls. Past and existing service users are already finding this helpful, as we can sign post to essential services and provide a listening ear at this worrying time.
