In addition to making individual grants, the Fund collaborates with other prison focused charities to support programmes in prisons that help prepare individuals for release. These Rehabilitation Projects have a particular focus on education and training to enhance prison leavers’ employment prospects.
Through the inspiring stories of our recent rehabilitation projects, you’ll see first hand how our fundraising events are making a real difference to the lives of those who need it most. We hope these projects will inspire you to join us in our mission to create a more just and compassionate society.
Thanks to some very generous legacies and the success of our fundraising events, over the last 15 years we have supported over 20 rehabilitation projects, many prison-based, with over £1 million of funding. We are currently supporting projects in six of London’s prisons.
CHESS IN PRISONS: 2023 – 2025
Chess is a readily available, low-cost, purposeful activity that offers inmates critical skills for life on the outside. It is a game of consequences that trains people to think before acting and can help prisoners to think logically and solve problems.
In 2023 the Fund provided a grant of £6,000 to a pilot programme initially being run in HMP Brixton. This has since been expanded into HMP Wormwood Scrubs and HMP Wandsworth and in 2025 we provided a further £6,000 to this project.
“This kind of activity has given us something positive to channel our energy and mind towards. Chess has opened a whole new world to many of us, developing our horizons and working towards a better future.”
Thank you message from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, E Wing Chess Club
XO BARBERS: 2025
This year we provided a £10,000 grant to support Onwards & Upwards’ new project – XO Barbers – in HMP Brixton. This program will provide vocational training and employment opportunities for prison inmates. The program aims to equip individuals with barbering skills, soft skills, and support in securing employment upon release.
Onwards & Upwards is a charity that is helping break the cycle of re-offending by creating and growing sustainable social ventures that train, mentor, and employ prison leavers in positive and supportive environments.
STANDOUT: 2025
The Fund provided a grant of £10,000 to fund StandOut’s staff costs of delivering a 12-day course at HMP Wandsworth. The “in-prison” programme consists of an intensive 12-day course, including modules on developing positive mindsets and new ways of thinking, building confidence, motivation and self-worth, and strengthening essential skills.
StandOut runs “through-the-gate” programmes at three London prisons preparing prisoners for life after release and then, post-release, providing ongoing support and coaching.
3 PILLARS: 2025
We made a £7,000 grant this year to fund a Rugby Academy programme in HMP YOI Feltham, engaging 72 young offenders in 6 full-day sessions of purposeful activity to empower young men to thrive beyond prison by building resilience, self-discipline, and a sense of belonging.
3 Pillars provides sports-based mentoring programmes for young men in custody and post-release. Through their Rugby Academy, young men become part of a team, boosting their physical, mental and emotional health on and off the playing field.
MAKING FOR CHANGE: 2024 – 2025
The Fund’s grant of £29,000 in 2024 supported the engagement of a Lecturer in Fashion Production at HMP Downview, with follow-on funding of £10,000 in 2025. The course has been running at maximum capacity of 23 women, with 13 women already having achieved Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications, and with three women expected to achieve placements at the Poplar Works on their release from prison.
Making for Change provides training in fashion production skills, with industry-recognised qualifications, offering a route away from re-offending whilst simultaneously increasing wellbeing and addressing the skills shortage within the UK fashion manufacturing industry. The programme is in operation at two locations: HMP Downview and at a purpose-built design and manufacturing hub at Poplar Works, east London.
HMP ISIS – A Reading Prison: 2023 – 2025
In partnership with HHJ Wendy Joseph, a Past Master of the Pewterers’ Livery Company, the Fund is funding a three-year literacy project in HMP ISIS, delivered by the Give a Book (GAB) charity (Prison Reading Groups). The aim is to raise the profile of reading within the prison and to use reading and books as a way to link prisoners to their families. To ensure the project is as effective as possible, it is being embedded by a GAB Prison Consultant, also funded by the Fund.
“Since I started book club I’ve been reading every day. It really got me into reading… The guys on my wing – every day we’re talking about the books. Now I can’t stop reading. Before I never used to read, only texts and stuff but now I read every day. I feel smarter already… Last night I stayed up till 2am because I wanted to finish the book”
National Prison Radio: 2023
National Prison Radio is recorded, produced and broadcast from HMP Brixton where, each week, trainee prisoner-producers create and produce 40 hours of content. In 2023 the Fund made a grant of £30,000 to the Prison Radio Association to help fund the project which will support up to 15 men in total, offering intensive training and one-to-one mentoring in radio production at the NPR studio and offering resettlement support to ensure they have access to the knowledge and resources they need to get the best start to a life beyond bars.
“We are delighted to be working alongside the Sheriffs’ & Recorder’s Fund. With their vital support, we can continue to create life-changing radio with talented prisoners at HMP Brixton. The grant will allow us to work with more men over the next 12 months to create radio content for the world’s first radio station for people in prison, while supporting them to build skills, build confidence and build better futures beyond bars.”
Evie Dickinson, Fundraising Manager, Prison Radio Association
Women in Prison: 2022 – 2025
A grant from the Fund enabled ‘Women in Prison’ to provide a Hub in Elephant & Castle where clients from across South London can come together on a monthly basis. The “All Hub” is a safe space, providing workshops, one to one support and drop-in clinics. The workshops are focused on generational trauma and parenting.
Women in Prison is a national charity that supports women affected by the criminal justice system and campaigns to end the harm caused to women, their families and communities by imprisonment.
OPERATION ELF: 2022 – 2024
Operation Elf, run by Prison Advice and Care Trust, supports parents in prison by providing gift cards for them to give to their children at Christmas. With over 300,000 children separated from their parents due to imprisonment, Christmas can be a painful time for these families.
The gift cards enable parents to maintain their parental identity and offer children the opportunity to choose a gift they really want. By supporting Operation Elf, the Sheriffs’ & Recorder’s Fund helps to make the festive season a little brighter for these families.
“Our heartfelt thanks to all at the Sheriffs’ & Recorder’s Fund for your generous support of PACT’s ‘Operation Elf’ this year. For a parent in custody, it provides an opportunity to show their child that they are still a family, that the child is still in their thoughts, that they are loved and that they want to be the parent their child would hope for them to be.”
Laura Wilkins, Fundraising Officer, PACT
UNTOLD CREATIVE TRAINING: 2022 – 2023
Untold is a creative arts training programme run by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at HMP Isis Young Offenders Institute. Up to 100 inmates are expected to attend these courses annually. Over the last two years the Fund has provided funding for a training theatre and production equipment for the lighting, sound design and video mapping training courses.
“Untold is a project that doesn’t just give prisoners good skills but changes their entire attitude to personal growth.”
Student, HMP Isis