How Can We help?

Many of the organisations we talked to asked for volunteers, so we’ve given some ideas of how to start volunteering below. There are lots of other ways to get involved – pray, donate, start a group in your parish, campaign…

In this video commissioners talk about how they’ve been inspired to take action themselves:

VOLUNTEERING

Are you interested in volunteering in the field of criminal justice?

​You would be surprised how many organisations in the criminal justice system rely on volunteers to be able to do their job. Whether you want to support victims, offenders or their families, there are many ways that you can offer your time to help others.

A great resource is the website https://do-it.org/ which tells you what volunteering opportunities are available near to you. By selecting ‘advanced search’ you can choose the skills you want to use, the areas you want to volunteer in and the location. See an example for Leeds and Bradford.

A list of local organisations is available in our directory [link to webpage]. Almost every area of the criminal justice system, from the police, to courts, to probation, to victim services, has opportunities for volunteers to help.

We have picked out four organisations who do great work and use volunteers:

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The West Yorkshire Community Chaplaincy Project helps people in prison while they are still inside to prepare for their release. Once out in the community, they offer support and mentoring. They also offer help to the families. Information about volunteering and contact details is available here and the story of one volunteer is here.

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Would you like to help victims and offenders to meet, hopefully helping each one to learn and move on from the crime? The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have repeatedly encouraged the use of such ‘restorative justice’ methods.

In North Yorkshire, the service is provided by Restorative Solutions so you can contact them directly for more information about volunteering. In West Yorkshire, the service is also provided by Restorative Solutions but it has a separate website with contact information for victims, offenders and potential volunteers.

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If you are a manager or own a business, and are willing to employ people leaving prison to help them to settle back in into the community, then Tempus Novo is keen to hear from you. They look for prisoners who are highly motivated to change and to make a new life on the ‘outside’, and offer the ex-offender support and mentoring.

If you have opportunities at your firm for ex-offenders to volunteer and gain skills to help them enter employment, Giving Time offers help in this process.