Medway now has its very own task group to help organisations to offer opportunities to people who are ex-offenders
Medway now has its very own task group to help organisations to offer opportunities to people who are ex-offenders and to break down the barriers they face when wanting to volunteer. As a group, it is realised that this will not be solved overnight and there isn’t a rule book to follow, but the task group are in the process of creating a flow chart that could help organisations to navigate through the process of recruiting a volunteer who is an ex-offender.
The task group is made up of people from local organisations and representatives from the community to inform and support other organisations and groups. One of the main contacts for the group, Michelle Trumper from wHoo Cares, has taken the lead to gather information for this page and has written a blog post about this subject, which can be found here
The task group was set up as an outcome of the 'Opening Doors to Volunteering Event' hosted by MVA in November 2018 and welcomes new members. If you would like to join the task group, be added to the mailing list and be invited to the meetings you can email Michelle at volunteer@whoocares.org.uk.
Some helpful resources can be obtained below. They include templates and policies from other organisations and are free for you to download and edit to suit your organisation. They should be used as a starting point and would need to be edited to suit your own organisations' needs and procedures.
Title | Description | Link |
Disclosure of Convictions | A form to be used to disclose previous convictions. Clicking the link causes the form to be downloaded. | Form |
Involving ex-offenders in volunteering | A document from NARCO that contains lots of information about involving ex-offenders in volunteering | Document |
Practical help for risk assessments | A document containing information concerning risk assessments. Clicking the link causes the document to be downloaded. | Risk Assessment |
Criminal record check risk assessment form | A document by who Cares to be used to carry out risk assessments. Clicking the link causes the form to be downloaded. | Criminal Record check |