Sue Ryder

We support people living through the challenges of life-changing illness. We support people in our residential and day centres, day clinics, in the community or at home. We help people affected by cancer, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, stroke, brain injury and life changing illnesses.

It's not just our health and social care services that support communities.

Since 2006 we have been supporting the rehabilitation of currently serving offenders through offering volunteering placements in our shops.

We work with currently serving offenders, from both open and closed prisons. These prisoners are reaching the end of their custodial sentence and are released on temporary Licence so that they can start the process of rehabilitation and resettlement.

They are considered to be the lowest risk within the prison system and have worked hard to improve their life choices. All the prisoners are fully risk assessed before being released on temporary licence. Volunteering with us gives them the opportunity to give something back to the community, while equipping them with skills that will increase their chance of finding paid employment on release.

Key facts:

• We benefit from 40,000 volunteering hours from the prison service each year which is equivalent to £240,000 of man hour costs
• Ex-offenders cannot prove themselves unless someone gives them a second chance
• Preventing one person from re-offending can save the tax-payer up to £40,000 a year
• We have worked with over 600 volunteers from prisons since 2006
• Finding a job is the single most important factor in re-offending. It can cut it by half
• Ex-offenders are 13 times more likely to be unemployed than the rest of the population
• 5% of our prison volunteers have moved on to paid work with us

We would like to thank the following sponsors for funding our programme between 2009 to 2011:

• The Bromley Trust
• The Gannochy Trust
• John Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust
• Lloyds TSB Foundation
• Pilgrim Trust
• The Robertson Trust
• Vandevell Foundation
• Voluntary Action Fund

If you would like to help guarantee the continuation of this programme from 2012 please contact Jo Addie on 07810 856 832 or email jo.addie@sueryder.org

> What our volunteers said about the programme

> Read how Baber learnt new skills as a Sue Ryder volunteer

> Read how volunteering with Sue Ryder helped Martin turn his back on crime   

> Read how volunteering led to paid employment at Sue Ryder for Elaine

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