Fund Our First Course Inside HMP Hindley

Aim

Beyond The Gate Training Academy breaks the cycle of reoffending. Our first course is confirmed at HMP Hindley, £8,500 funds cohort one.

📍 THE ROADMAP — WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES, IN ORDER

MILESTONE 1 — £8,500: Cohort One at HMP Hindley ← WE ARE HERE. Confirmed and ready to run.

MILESTONE 2 — £17,000: Cohort Two funded

MILESTONE 3 — £30,000: A full term of delivery — three cohorts, 30+ men, laptops and mentoring included

THE NEWS: HMP HINDLEY HAS SAID YES.

Our first Business & Entrepreneurship course is officially confirmed at HMP Hindley, a training and resettlement prison in Greater Manchester. The prison is ready. The materials are ready. The men are waiting. The only thing between us and delivery is funding — and that’s where you come in.

MY STORY

My name is Lee Orrell, founder of Beyond The Gate Training Academy.

This organisation wasn’t created from a business plan alone — it was born from lived experience.

Before prison, I spent more than 20 years building businesses: senior roles in blue-chip companies, then Managing Director and CEO of my own successful companies. Then I lost it all.

After serving time in prison, I experienced first-hand how difficult it is to rebuild your life. Leaving prison isn’t the end of the sentence for many people. Too often, people walk out with hope but without the support, skills or opportunities needed to succeed. I had to find mental health support on my own, overcome stigma, and learn how to build a future from scratch. That journey showed me how much needs to change.

Rather than allowing my past to define me, I chose to use it to help others.

Inside, I saw wings full of capable, resourceful, determined men with no structure, no guidance and no legitimate route to use any of it. I knew exactly what they were missing — because I’d spent two decades teaching it in boardrooms: structure, planning, communication, financial discipline, and belief backed by a plan.

Around half of prison leavers reoffend within a year. Behind every one of those numbers is a victim, a family and a community paying the price. Ministry of Justice research links prison education to a reduction in reoffending of around 13% — and stable work after release is one of the strongest protective factors there is.

WHAT COHORT ONE DELIVERS (MILESTONE 1 — £8,500)

An intensive one-week Business & Entrepreneurship course at HMP Hindley for men approaching release, covering mindset and accountability, communication, enterprise and legitimate self-employment, business planning, money management, CVs and disclosure.

Every learner leaves with a written personal action plan. And our support doesn’t stop at the gate: learners receive mentoring and accountability check-ins during the critical weeks after release, and qualifying learners receive a refurbished laptop — removing a real barrier to work, training and starting a business.

WHY YOU CAN TRUST THIS

• Delivered in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University — academic rigour, quality-assured materials and independent evaluation

• Founded and delivered by someone who has sat on both sides: the boardroom and the cell

• Governed by a proper board, including Neil Davies, a quality and compliance specialist who has built multi-million-pound operations

• Every cohort is measured — attendance, completion, confidence before and after — and we publish the results

WHAT EVERY POUND FUNDS

£25 — a learner’s complete workbook set for the week

£50 — one man’s course materials and his personal action plan

£180 — a refurbished laptop for a learner on release

£500 — sponsors a full course day for the whole cohort

£750 — puts one man through the entire programme, mentoring included

OUR PROMISE TO YOU

Every supporter receives our Cohort One Impact Report — the real numbers, the real outcomes, what your money actually did. No gloss. That’s the standard this academy is built on.

This campaign isn’t just about funding an organisation. It’s about investing in people who are determined to change, reducing reoffending, strengthening families and making our communities safer.

Everyone deserves the chance to rewrite their story.

If you can’t give — share. A share costs nothing and is worth as much as a donation.

The challenge doesn’t end at the gate. Neither do we.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 21st September 2026 at 12:09am