A UK Charity | Registered Charity No.: 1118475 | |
Working
hard for those with communication
difficulties and supporting people with Cancer and Diabetes | ||
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St Giles Trust
St Giles Trust
Head Office:
64-68 Camberwell Church Street
London
SE5 8JB
Tel.:020 7703 7000
St Giles Trust works in a number of prisons across England, mainly in London and the southeast,
the Thames Valley region and the southwest. It operates prison-based services through its award-winning
Peer Advice Project to help with housing and offer a range of support to help prison-leavers resettle.
This Peer Advice Project aims to meet the large demand for advice services amongst the prison population by
using an under-used resource - serving prisoners themselves. It trains serving prisoners to NVQ Level 3 in
Information, Advice and Guidance and enables them to help other prisoners to prepare them for life after release.
Some advise on housing issues and, in some prisons, advisors cover other areas such as employment and training
opportunities. St Giles Trust then follows this "through the gate" of the prison and helps prisoners to adjust,
find and keep housing and jobs, and where necessary it finds or provides education.
Hundreds of prisoners have gained the NVQ qualification under the Peer Advice Project and each individual has
supported large numbers of their fellow prisoners, reaching a need, which would otherwise be unmet.
The Housing Information and Advice Service works in partnership with St Mungo's. It offers advice on housing-related
issues to both newly sentenced prisoners and those about to be released.
St Giles Trust provides practical support with issues such as job hunting, confidence building, preparing a CV and
handling interviews. It also has links with employers and tries to lobby them to take on ex-offenders as employees.
All its work aims to help those leaving prison settle back into the community and to reduce re-offending.
Click to visit the Charity's page on the Charity Commission website. (Registered Charity No.: 801355)
How Frustrated Communication found St Giles Trust -
"Research" carried out before Frustrated Communication was set up indicated that some 10% of the UK population is
dyslexic whilst estimates of between 60 and 90% of the prison population suffer this frustration. Further investigation
lead to an employee of St Giles Trust working in Chelmsford prison training prisoners to help their fellow
inmates with dyslexia. When we made contact with St Giles Trust this project had finished.
We found at St Giles Trust a dedicated team who work tirelessly with ex-offenders to help them integrate back into
society and reduce the chance of re-offending.
Half of St Giles Trust employees are themselves ex-offenders, which helps provide the very necessary mutual respect.
How Frustrated Communication has helped:
In 2009 we provided funds to purchase equipment and software to help the training team and one of it's members with
dyslexia generate typed notes and reports from hand written and dictated notes.
In 2011 we provided funds for a couple of staff to attend a specialist course run by Dyslexia Action to identify fellow
staff members and clients with "Hidden Disabilities" such as dyslexia and Autism, and to identify their special needs.