Description
The submitted project is implemented by RUBIKON Centrum (RC) – an NGO that has been implementing programs to reduce recidivism for more than 26 years, and has applied many innovations from foreign good practice to the conditions of the Czech Republic. RC provides its services to app. 1500 people with a criminal record per year.
The project is a response to the insufficient capacity, continuity and interconnectedness of services for convicts leaving prison, and the accumulation of disadvantages and barriers to their integration.
The purpose of the project is to improve the conditions for 150 people in the process of leaving the custodial sentence in 5 prisons.
To accomplish this aim, we will create and verify in practice the methodology of the Mentoring Program, which will serve for the use in practice by other subjects. We will also train 8 mentors who will receive support and training throughout the project, and they will provide support to clients under the guidance of professional counsellors. The project will transfer good practice in the area of mentoring from the Norwegian organization Wayback to the conditions of the Czech Republic.
Work with the target group will take place in close cooperation with the professional team of the project, employees of the Prison Service and other subjects involved in post-penitentiary care in the Czech Republic. We will start cooperating with clients in prison and support will continue fluently after their release. Activities are focused on addressing key areas that have a demonstrable impact on the success rate in integration and recidivism of people released from prison:
- assistance in securing housing and other basic material needs
- assistance in finding a job, including retraining
- development of functional family relationships and other supportive social contacts
- solving the financial situation
- care for physical and mental health
- leisure and personal development.
Project schedule: 11/21-4/24.
Summary of project results
Project responded to lack of capacity, continuity and coherence of services for people leaving prison and accumulation of disadvantages and barriers to their integration back to normal life outside prison. The risks of recidivism associated with the period after release are very high, because often those released do not have financial, social or employment background. They accumulate problems such as debt, little chance of getting a job, lack of housing or poor family relationships. In prison, also due to low personal and financial capacity, there is a lack of relevant treatment programmes that would focus on assiting and accompanying convicts during ther pre-release and post-release life.
In order to improve the conditions of our clients - convicts upon release from prison we have developed and implemented methodology of a mentoring programme. We trained 12 mentors, 8 provided support to clients under the guidance of professional counsellors and in cooperation with other professionals. We used good practice of Norwegian partner organization Wayback in training of mentors and their ongoing support. Cooperation with clients started in prison and support continued after release according to an established individual plan, which was continuously updated in line with the clients needs. Activities were focused on addressing areas key to successful integration and recurrence prevention, such as providing housing and basic material needs; finding employment, acquiring/strengthening work habits, incl. retraining; development of functional family relationships and supportive social contacts; financial management, debt solving; care for physical and mental health; leisure and personal development; implementation of Practical Interviews (a proven concept aimed at supporting employment).
Through implementation of mentoring programme, our project improved services for people leaving prison and created adequate conditions for their re-socialisation. 187 clients entered the programme and had their individual plan in relevant areas of support designed. 105 clients were successful in their individual plan and achieved their goals. Level of satisfaction with service on a scale of 1-5 reached 4.6. Programme methodology and manual for mentor training were developed and 12 people successfully completed the training. Project contributed to global objective of teh Justice programme - improving the correctional system - by creating a comprehensive, practice-tested methodology of mentoring programme for further use in practice, and manual for training mentors, incl. follow-up training and support in work with clients. The project also contributed to improvement of cooperation among prisons, NGOs and other actors. Project also deepened the cooperation with Norwegian partner.
Summary of bilateral results
The project greatly benefited from the expertise and know-how of the Norwegian partner Wayback, whose work with clients in prisons and after release is based on mentoring and the use of lived experience from imprisonment. Wayback participated in the creation of a manual for training mentors and the methodology of the mentoring programme. The partner''s representatives participated in the training of mentors, led a workshop for mentors and counselors, and provided regular online and in-person consultations during the project. The cooperation was mutually beneficial; during visits, for example, the Norwegians visited the Czech participating prisons in Příbram and Světlá nad Sázavou. The project greatly contributed to the development of cooperation with Wayback in other areas of our activities such as the use of lived experience from serving a sentence, the topic of convicted women, and the development of community prisons within the European RESCALED network, in which both organizations participated. This cooperation takes concrete form in the implementation of other joint projects, including the follow-up bilateral initiative Mentoring: sharing experiences between practitioners. It enabled participation in the European Symposium on Community Prisons in Brussels, with a positive impact beyond the scope of the project. About 150 experts from 30 countries shared their experiences with the development of small, community-integrated prison facilities. This led to a strengthening of cooperation between these actors and networking with other organizations from across Europe.