MLA South East has funded three projects which worked with offenders and ex-offenders in the South East:
- Bridging the Gap
- Black Box
- Project Hero
Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap offered prisoners and ex-offenders, undergoing resettlement in West Sussex, increased access to learning resources and information.
Funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), through Empowering the Learning Community demonstration projects and supported by MLA South East, it enabled West Sussex Library Service, HMP Ford Education Department and Probation Services (Employment, Training and Education Team) to work together.
Black Box
'There are no people like us in museums.' - Black Box Participant.
The Black Box project, run by MLA South East, established links with prison inmates, ex-offenders and vulnerable individuals through a creative scheme involving museums and galleries in West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. The project aimed to give a voice to those seldom heard and demonstrate that museums can have a role to play in the lives of everyone.
As part of Black Box participants were invited to take part in a series of workshops led by poets and supported by museum staff and artists. Inspired by artefacts brought in by museums and working only with images and words, participants created their own 'personal museums.'
Project Hero
Project Hero developed creative reader and writer development courses around graphic novels and artefacts for young offenders who were disaffected with education.
MLA South East funded and supported the Museum of Reading and Reading’s Prison Library to work with young men in the Separated Prisoners Unit at HM Young Offenders Institute, Reading.
External evaluation demonstrated that the pilot project raised the young men’s self esteem and enhanced their key skills in literacy, creativity, communication and social interaction.
