The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has announced grant funding of £1.4m to support the development of mentoring and volunteering services for offenders. The Care Leavers Association were successful in obtaining grant funding to pilot different schemes designed to increase the number of ex offender care leavers mentoring other care leavers in the criminal justice system. The long term aim is to explore methods that can contribute to a reduction in reoffending amongst care leavers in the criminal justice system.
We are very excited about this new piece of work. NOMS received around 100 applications for the funding and 8 organisations, including the CLA were chosen. With nearly 1/3 of the prison population having spent time in care, this project will provide an opportunity to explore why there is a disproportionate amount of care leavers in the criminal justice system and begin to take steps to reducing the figure.