SixtyOne Bristol: "We want to change the narrative people have about people with a criminal record"

BristolWorld

The Bristol-based charity helps people who have a criminal record made positive changes to their lives to live a different way free from crime through three main projects: Hub, Mentoring and Gift Projects.   The charity offers mentoring support to those with a criminal record.   They also have partnerships with churches and organisations to provide welcoming spaces for those with criminal records.   During Christmas, SixtyOne team up with churches to fund and pack gift bags to deliver to over 1,4000 prisoners in three local men prisons. A similar scheme is in place during Easter when Easter gift bags are delivered to the local women’s prison.   The charity is one of the main partnerships at this year’s Treefest (December 5 to 8), where SixtyOne has a tree decorated by the men and women they support.   We talk with Bristol charity SixtyOne about the meaning behind their Treefest tree and the work the charity does.

Transcript

00:00TreeFest has officially opened. Let's find out what this year's edition has to offer.

00:07My name is Esther Champion. I work for the charity called 61 and I'm the Hubs lead and

00:12external training coordinator.

00:13Can you tell us a bit about the Christmas tree that's been decorated by today's event?

00:14Yeah, sure. So you can see the Christmas tree behind me and we've got all these decorations

00:23on there and they've been decorated by the men and women that we support and all of these

00:27men and women have got a criminal record. Most of them have been in prison and everything

00:31that they've written on these decorations are an attribute that they want to be known

00:35by. So we've got helpful or humble or joyful or positive because they want to try and change

00:41the narrative that a lot of people have about people who have got a criminal record or have

00:44been in prison.

00:45Can you tell us a bit more about the charity and what it does?

00:49Yeah, so 61 is a Bristol based charity and everything we do is about supporting people

00:54who have got a criminal record to make positive changes to their lives and live a different

00:58way free from crime. So we've got three main projects. Our biggest project is our mentoring

01:03project where we offer mentoring support to people who have got a criminal record. So

01:07we pair them with a volunteer mentor and that mentor is there to listen, support, encourage

01:11and empower that person to work towards and achieve the goals that they've set themselves

01:15and want to achieve, which will help them make those positive changes and live a life

01:19free from crime.

01:20We have a Hubs project where we partner with churches and organisations to provide a welcoming

01:24space for people that have got criminal records to have a sense of community and a sense of

01:27belonging and each of those look very different, they're not all faith based.

01:31And then finally we have our gift bag project. So at Christmas we have churches help us fund

01:35and pack gift bags to deliver to three local men's prisons to Bristol. Then an Easter gift

01:40project where we send Easter gift bags to the women's prison that's local to Bristol

01:44as well and we partner with other organisations as well to provide other things for people

01:49in prison.

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