According to the Scottish Prison Service, “prison may sometimes do good, but it always does harm". VOLPRIS aims to invest on the qualification of volunteering management in prison to have a positive Impact upon volunteers' daily work effectiveness, and therefore on reoffending rates. Volunteers consistently bring to prison something that paid-staff cannot bring: they represent the community side of the sentence to the offender, and help this often complex group keep emotional and physical ties which support successful (re)inclusion on release. VOLPRIS brings together eight organisations from five European Member States. As four prison Administrations and four non-profit volunteering organisations, our partnership reflects a wide range of experience right across the criminal justice System (CJS). Partners not only bring their particular expertise, but previous working relationships with other partners that serves to underline their commitment to the value of Voluntary Sector Organisations (VSOs) in the CJS. We have a shared desire to contribute to an engage and active Society, where volunteering is an expression of solidarity and European values, but also for safer communities, where prisoners are fully supported to integrate back into their communities and address issues which lead to their offending. VolPris aims to: 1. Explore mutual learning opportunities between CJS and VSOs by creating exchange frameworks which will facilitate the comparability between different EU prison practices regarding volunteering; 2. Identify key performance indicators between National Prison Administrations and volunteer organisations within secure settings; 3. Develop a training curriculum and programme to support the development of a CJS volunteer manager profile, and develop a European Volunteer Managers training guide; 4. Establish common European minimum standards to train volunteers working in prison environment and to assess the quality of volunteer organisations and/or programmes; 5. Promote collaborative training to take advantage of scale and creativity to ensure a common baseline message and reduce delivery costs. Intellectual Outputs (IO): 1. Screening tool to identify CJS needs in terms of Volunteering Programs: Aproximar (leader) 2. Volunteering Managers Profile: CPIP (leader) 3. Training Manual for European CJS Volunteering Managers: Aproximar (leader) 4. Minimum Requirements for Volunteering in CJS Settings: Centre for European Volunteering (leader) 5. European platform on Volunteer Management, Programme practices, knowledge, and experiences exchange in the Prison Context: Bremen Ministry of Justice and Constitution (leader) Other project key-activities: Validation Workshops – each IO comprises the organisation of 5 national validation workshops (one per IO), for which partners must invite, at least, 6 experts 10 multiplier events will occur during the project timeline; 200 Stakeholders will be involved, including some transnational participants. 3 Short-Term Staff Training Events (Portugal, Poland and Germany) – during which each Partner is responsible for organising a session according to their organisational strengths. EXPECTED RESULTS A) Increased exchange and collaboration between countries, organisations and programmes on the topic of Criminal Justice System Volunteering Management; B) Increased understanding of each partners’ needs, experience and working reality, namely the use and exchange of innovative practices; C) Increased comparability and better balance between countries’ on CJS volunteering managers’ practices, knowledge and experience; D) Detailed and sustainable information source of wider online support to the deepen knowledge between countries, organisation and programmes, enabling to building conjoint programmes, mobilities, shadowing, study visits and capacity building programmes besides providing critical insights on CJS Volunteer Programmes management strategic development;
1. To explore mutual learning opportunities between prisons and community organisations (and the people who work and voluntneer within them) and develop a tailored curriculum encompassing both group's strengths: we aim for the two groups to view one another as collaborative partners in the pursuit of more effective (re)integration on release from prison, and thereby prevention of crime. 2. To provide prison administrations with clear facts about training needs and key performance indicators for implementing volunteering initatives in prisons, to better equip them to navigate sometimes difficult decisions between security and rehabilitation. 3. To develop and nurture a transnational network of European peers in prison volunteering, so that practitioners can learn and grow from one another, and use one another's experience to advocate for better common standards across the European Union.
The VOLPRIS Partnership of prisons, prison administrations, volunteering and nonprofit organisations recognised a need to support the criminal justice system’s recognition of the importance of community involvement in prisoner rehabilitation whilst reducing the community’s stigmatization of (former) prisoners. Through investment in tailored training resources for volunteer coordinators and providing decision makers with evidence of common minimum standards we both support key public servants and civilian volunteers, but we also advocate for a human-rights based approach to corrections in Europe. VOLPRIS's activities show that transnational exchange and peer networks between prisons and civil society organisations can both support and motivate all stakeholders.