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Funded Travelling Fellowships seek people in the field of Prisons and Penal Reform

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Funded Travelling Fellowships – Prison and Penal Reform

In 2015, The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust will be investing £1.2 million in British citizens, by awarding a record number of 150 Travelling Fellowships, in order to mark its 50th anniversary.

This will directly support British citizens who want to travel overseas to gain knowledge, experience and best practice to benefit others in their UK professions and communities, and society as a whole.

As part of the third and final year of our three year partnership with the Prison Reform Trust we will be awarding another ten Travelling Fellowships to those people involved in Prison and Penal Reform.

Anyone working in the criminal justice system, with a determination to help reduce reoffending and contribute to a more just, humane and effective penal system is encouraged to apply.

The International Centre for Prison Studies is also supporting this partnership.

We're particularly interested in applications to visit projects covering these areas:

  • Early interventions to prevent crime & effective alternatives to custody, including reducing the use of custodial remand and pre-trial detention
  • Community penalties and restorative justice
  • Rehabilitation in prison and constructive regimes for serious and violent offenders
  • Programmes that have improved treatment and conditions for people in prison
  • Pre-emptive programmes within education systems with a focus on school exclusion and those with learning difficulties and mental health issues
  • Effective projects with women in the justice system
  • Effective projects with children and young people in the justice system
  • Support for prisoners' families
  • Effective resettlement projects
  • Countries that have succeeded in reducing their prison numbers

Amongst those travelling this year is Debbie Addlestone, a Senior Probation Officer from Leeds, researching effective interventions for shoplifters.

Successful applicants must demonstrate the commitment, the character and the tenacity to travel globally in pursuit of new and better ways of tackling a wide range of current challenges facing the UK, and upon their return work to transform and improve aspects of today’s society.

A travelling sabbatical for people with the drive, determination and desire to help others, can further their leadership and role model abilities.

Employers often also see great benefits with employees returning with new knowledge, skills and ideas to share with others within the organisation.

Applications are judged purely on project merit, and these opportunities are available to UK residents over the age of 18, of any ethnicity, religion, or gender.

Successful applicants will receive an average Fellowship grant of over £6000, covering return airfare, daily living costs, insurance and travel within the countries being visited, for approximately 6 weeks overseas.

Notes to Editors

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death in 1965, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 4820 Travelling Fellowships.

The application process for travel in 2015 is now open, and there are 11 varied categories in which people can apply.

Churchill’s beliefs and passions are still living on through our Fellows – who are remarkable yet ordinary individuals, representing a wide range of backgrounds, qualifications, interests and professions, but sharing the desire to do something for the improvement of British life and their fellow man.

The deadline for the 2015 applications is 5pm on 23rd September 2014.

In total 137 Fellowships were awarded in the UK in 2014, with grant awards totaling £876,540. The Fellows are currently travelling to 52 countries between them, across 6 continents, carrying out a wide range of projects.

To maximise the impact of our Fellowships we have developed partnerships with other organisations, focused on specific areas of concern and relevance for the UK today. Lessons learnt from overseas travel are effectively coordinated and disseminated, and incorporated into best practice in the UK for the benefit of others in similar communities and professions.

The Prison Reform Trust is an independent UK charity working to create a just, humane and effective penal system. It conducts applied research, provides public and Parliamentary information and helps to secure change in justice policy and practice. Its advice and information service responds to over 5,000 prisoners and their families each year.

The Prison Reform Trust's main objectives are:

  1. reducing unnecessary imprisonment and promoting community solutions to crime
  2. improving treatment and conditions for prisoners and their families

The Prison Reform Trust  will help to ensure the lessons learnt from the Prison and Penal Reform Fellowships are properly coordinated and disseminated throughout the criminal justice system.

 

The International Centre for Prison Studies assists governments and other relevant agencies to develop appropriate policies on prisons and the use of imprisonment, and has an academic link to the University of Essex. The Centre makes the results of its academic research and projects widely available to groups and individuals, both nationally and internationally. The ICPS will provide advice to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and our Fellows, as to where best and interesting international knowledge best practice may be located, and will also help disseminate the findings of the Fellowships.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust: 020 7799 1660

www.wcmt.org.uk

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Research travel grants overseas prisons Churchill

Quotes

“We must not forget that when every material improvement has been effected in prisons, when the temperature has been rightly adjusted, when the proper food to maintain health and strength has been given, when the doctors, chaplains and prison visitors have come and gone, the convict stands deprived of everything that a free man calls life. We must not forget that all these improvements, which are sometimes salves to our consciences, do not change that position. The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state, and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes, and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.”
Winston Churchill