Always on
This project successfully funded on 27th February 2021, you can still support them with a donation.
This project successfully funded on 27th February 2021, you can still support them with a donation.
Enlarge our project to cover more people!
Aim: We are raising money to support the creation of paid mentoring roles for people with experience of custody to mentor their peers.
Arkbound was founded as a social enterprise in 2015 by someone who spent time in prison and to this day we employ people with experience of custody, recognising that they encounter widespread disadvantages that can hinder rehabilitation.
Since 2018 we have been providing one to one mentoring for aspiring writers from disadvantaged backgrounds, matching them up with experienced authors to develop their writing skills. We are looking to expand this initiative to more people in custody, under our Writing Within Walls project, with the aim of employing mentors who have left prison and/or have experience of substance misuse, so they can more effectively support people from the same backgrounds. We will provide training and placements for these individuals to act as supporting mentors, with provisions to enable remote working so as to comply with COVID restrictions.
The power of literature, journalism and writing to reach people in prison is immense, especially at a time when many other opportunities have been curtailed and there are soaring mental health needs. Through this initiative, we expect to achieve:-
Forward Enterprise Fund has provided £5,000 of match funding