Northern Rock Foundation

Northern Rock Foundation is giving around £1.8 m to support groups in the North East and Cumbria in its latest round of grants – with two awards geared at tackling the problem of reoffending.

Forty nine per cent of adults who serve time in prison are reconvicted within one year of their release and, for those people serving a sentence of less than 12 months, this increases to a staggering 59%.

Aquila Way, a housing charity based in Gateshead, received £61,960 to support work with prisoners from HMP Northumberland. Staff from Aquila establish a relationship with the prisoner for six weeks before their release and then work intensively to ensure that they have reasonable support and accommodation on release.

Nancy Doyle, Aquila Way’s Chief Executive, said: “Over the last three years the AMP project has delivered intensive mentoring to individuals leaving prisons in the North East of England.  In this time 80 per cent of the offenders it has helped have not reoffended and have successfully resettled into the community. The funding received from the Northern Rock Foundation will allow us to continue this successful project.”

Deputy Governor of HMP Northumberland, Neil Evans, said: “The AMP project has provided a number of local offenders with the opportunity to address their “life issues” and consequently provide them with the best opportunity of remaining  offence free and becoming citizens of their communities. As a Prison Governor this project provides hope for offenders, protection for victims and supports the work of HMP Northumberland in reducing reoffending in our community.”

Alcohol fuelled crime is higher in Newcastle than in the rest of the North East and England as a whole. In order to address this area-specific need, Nacro, based in Wallsend, has devised a programme which focuses on helping young offenders between the ages of 18 and 25 years to concentrate on health and alcohol control and also supports them to acquire employability skills. The Foundation’s Trustees agreed to make an award of £150,634 over three years to the charity.

On learning of the award Anne Hayes, Nacro’s Newcastle area manager, said: “Alcohol and drug misuse is one of the key causes of crime and reoffending. Tackling this problem is vital to reducing crime, but breaking the link between alcohol and reoffending can be very difficult and requires intensive, community-based intervention. The new Engage scheme will help Nacro tackle the root causes of reoffending, cut crime, and give people the chance to take responsibility for their actions.

“Using Nacro’s experience of working with repeat offenders and our unique approach to addressing the causes of crime, we hope to make a lasting change to the lives of many people across Newcastle and Gateshead. It’s really important that we do make a difference on this issue, because alcohol-related crime is almost seven per cent higher in this area compared to the national average.”