Wandsworth prison charity launched
‘If someone is self-harming or suicidal, it’s surprising how much a little teddy or plush zebra will help, even if you are fifty.’
A new Quaker-backed charity to support people at Wandsworth Prison was publicly launched last month.
Friends gathered for the launch party of the Wandsworth Prison Welfare Trust on 2 May. The charity was set up in April last year by Liz Bridge, Quaker chaplain at HMP Wandsworth, with the aim of keeping men at the prison ‘sane, and focused, with hope for their future and a sense that their chaplains can and will help them’.The trust provides the prisoners with recreational activities and therapeutic materials. ‘If someone is self-harming or suicidal, it’s surprising how much a little teddy or plush zebra will help, even if you are fifty.’
Liz Bridge told the Friend that she is looking for Quakers to support the initiative, especially those with fundraising knowledge. ‘In particular I need to raise funds from the sorts of charitable trusts that can give to serving prisoners for mental health and support in poverty, and I would appreciate any knowledge that anyone has about such trusts. It has amazed me who among my friends are trustees of charitable trusts, and I would like to shake the wider Quaker tree, not just for Quaker money but for their wider experience.’
She added: ‘It is amazing when individual Quakers send me help. I have had knitted hats from all over the UK and it has been very moving to open packets from Local Meetings and Knit and Natter groups. The socks sent in 2021 are still cheering men up and giving heartfelt smiles.’
The charity is looking to raise around £20,000 a year ‘to keep men in art materials, wind-up radios, playing cards and games like chess and dominos. We buy from charity shops when we can. A good example is that we have deals with various charity shops to sell us DVDs for 20p each, jigsaws for £1, and tracksuits and T-shirts for £5-a-sack, full of clothing they can’t sell, but is picked to our needs.’
The charity has grown out of the work that Liz and others have organised over several years.
‘In 2018 I persuaded the chaplains and security governor to allow chaplaincy to beg and buy small wind-up radios for prisoners who were suicidal or self-harming, very poor or depressed. We went on to introduce a small and very limited jigsaw-puzzle swap scheme which [went on to become] a source of chess and dominos and playing cards. All that was before Covid hit.’
At the start of Covid, the governor gave Liz £6,000 to buy items to run workshops. This developed through the pandemic, particularly when the libraries closed.
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