Friday 18 May 2012
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Sue Ryder scoops prestigious national award for its work with prisoner volunteers
24 November 2011
Sue Ryder’s pioneering work with prison volunteers across the UK has won a top award at the prestigious Personnel Today Awards 2011 (November 23 2011).
At the glittering awards ceremony held at London’s Hilton Hotel, the national health and social care charity clinched the Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for its flagship Prison Volunteer Programme, beating off stiff competition from Bank of America, BSkyB, Capgemini, Unum and Veolia Environmental Services.
Established in 1998, the Personnel Today Awards are the most recognised in the profession, and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) category recognises the increasing importance of CSR and the benefits it can bring to an organisation.
Sue Ryder’s Director of People, Sally Smith said: “I am absolutely delighted that our work through the Prison Volunteer Programme has won this much-coveted award, particularly when we were up against such strong finalists.
“Sue Ryder is the UK’s only charity to have a national policy in place to recruit prisoner volunteers. We’ve been running our programme since 2006 and during that time we have placed over 600 prisoners as volunteers in 70 of our shops and offices. And each year, offenders provide 40,000 volunteering hours, which is estimated to be worth the equivalent of £240,000 in staff hour costs. This is not only invaluable to the charity but to society as a whole.
“We work in partnership with 30 individual prisons to ensure the prisoner volunteer placements are mutually beneficial. Whilst in placements, carefully risk-assessed prisoners are able to repay a debt to society by working with us. And, not only does this help the prisoner to improve their confidence and self-esteem, it helps them to make worthwhile reparation for the crime they carried out in the past.
“The experience gained by offenders also adds to their chances of finding a job when they are released, which is a major element in reducing the rates of offending. Indeed, finding a job is the single most important factor in re-offending – it can cut the rate by half,” said Sally.
“Ex-offenders are 13 times more likely to be unemployed than the rest of the population. Half of all prisoners do not have the skills required for 96 per cent of jobs. I am pleased to say that 10 per cent of our prisoner volunteers have moved onto paid work with us.
“Ex-offenders cannot prove themselves unless someone gives them a second chance. Sue Ryder does that, and gains a lot from it. And when you consider that it costs £45,000 to keep someone in prison for a year, the benefit to wider society of Sue Ryder’s prison volunteer programme is obvious,” she added.
Steve (46), who has been in and out of prison for 30 years and is now an assistant manager at one of Sue Ryder’s shops, said: “This is the first proper job I’ve ever had. It was a daunting experience just being out and, from my first nervous day, I never believed I could do it. But my confidence has grown as has my self belief and worth and I’m looking forward to the future. Sue Ryder has been fantastic to me. And in this final stage of my rehabilitation, they have been the final piece of the jigsaw.”
Paul Woodward, Sue Ryder’s CEO, said: “This is an excellent achievement and my congratulations go to Sally and her team of staff and prisoner volunteers. To win such a prestigious award, when the other finalists were corporates themselves is incredible, and a real testament to the value of the Prison Volunteer Programme.
“I’m delighted that this vital work – which not only helps Sue Ryder and the prisoners themselves but society as a whole – has received the recognition it deserves. It only costs £50,000 a year to fund this programme but our 3-year funding partnerships have come to an end. We are now looking to secure private funding for next year so we can continue to build on the huge success of this programme for many years to come.”
To view a video about Sue Ryder’s Prison Volunteer Programme, please click onto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5iCNo18RgI.
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