Beyond the Gate attended NAPO AGM in Nottingham and had a great response their publication which sign post’s prisoners to service providers.
Beyond the Gate was created by Katie Woodfinden whilst she was in custody in 2019/20 at HMP Styal. She realised that there were loads of service providers to help the girls but there was no one-stop-shop with a list of all the service providers in one place. Katie was working at the Clink restaurant training and was given time by the governor to work on Beyond the Gate. The publication's role is a guide to signposting the access to services with positive genuine case studies to reflect their adverts. It also contains other information about the prison, frequent questions asked, stories, puzzles, prison radio and much more. The glossy magazine is given on induction on people’s first night and just before people leave custody, thus giving them hope when you enter and help when you leave. Additionally, BTG is made available in the visitor centre for family and friends who can get confidence from all the people that can help their loved-one in prison. The magazine is also placed in areas where prison officers are and can be used as a training manual to assist officers.
Upon Katie's release in early 2020, she continued to work on the publication during lockdown with myself, liaising with many people at HMPPS including Pia Sinha, Phil Copple and Andy Laidlaw. We eventually secured funding to produce 2,000 copies for HMP Liverpool and engaged Liverpool John Moore’s University to evaluate the impact of the magazine, by working with those in prison, prison workers and the families and friends of those in prison.
The evaluation had lots of positive comments which I can send you after we have a conversation.
If you can come back to me with a convenient time and date to have chat , I can give you more information and hope we can find some synergy between what you do and Beyond the Gate.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Jeremy
Beyond the Gate
Magazine Link: https://truvue.uk/beyondthegate/hmpliverpool/mobile/index.html
Website Link: https://beyondthegatepublishing.org