On the 27th September, our Director of Operations and Women’s Projects, Abbey Darling attended this year’s Women’s Justice conference: She Matters, which is run by the charity Imago Dei.
Imago Dei currently works with women in three women’s prisons in the Southeast and upon release in the community. They are committed to equipping women in prison and upon their release to live their fullest potential.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Accommodation And Employment For Women Leaving Prison‘, looking at the five holistic areas of development; physical development, intellectual development, social skills, emotional understanding, and spiritual development.
The overall running theme was hope and this thread ran throughout the day. Attendees heard from people with lived experience, as well as professionals working in women’s criminal justice.
Abbey heard a keynote from a recent guest on National Prison Radio Tawana Blake. She talked about her journey from prison to now supporting others, and the role faith played in her journey in prison.
Attendees also heard a keynote from Dr Ruth Armstrong from Justice Matters, who the Prison Radio Association know very well, as our consultant for Prison Radio International. Ruth talked about sustaining hope and how we can find hope from looking at problem solving courts and innovative solutions to criminal justice around the world.
Abbey was particularly inspired to hear from Imago Dei’s team ID Essence who do vital work with young women aged 18-25 in HMP Downview – which Abbey was lucky to witness some of this year on a recent Takeover Day, where National Prison Radio recorded with them in their impressive chapel space.
Abbey delivered a ‘breakout room’ session. She played some brilliant ‘best of’ clips from National Prison Radio, and talked about the importance of National Prison Radio in women’s prisons and the impact it can have.
She also talked about the role of ‘joy’ in the radio station. Abbey conveyed that it is of course important not to ever downplay or diminish the trauma and severe issues impacting women in prison, but rather to remember that women in prison are funny, creative, articulate people and that in the radio station we can let women talk about more than their trauma – they can interview Katie Piper or host a sports feature, or talk about David Bowie for hours on end!
Abbey spearheads our work in women’s prisons and over the last two years has been visiting all the women’s prisons in the country to create a very special series of programmes on National Prison Radio.
The Women’s Takeover Series is in partnership with Women In Prison and HMPPS Women’s Directorate.
Each programme shines the light on an individual prison, telling the stories of the women living there and exploring the major strategic projects going on across the women’s estate, including domestic violence programmes, early days interventions and mother and baby units.
Abbey and colleagues have also been delivering Yong Adult women’s workshops at HMP Styal, one of the homes of National Prison Radio, where we teach women radio skills.
National Prison Radio equips women with skills and confidence, increasing their chances of accessing employment and education after release.
Conferences like this are a great chance to share knowledge, get new ideas, hear from women with lived experience and share the work of National Prison Radio.
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The Prison Radio Association is a registered charity. We work with women at HMP Styal and men at HMP Brixton to create award-winning, rehabilitative radio, while supporting them to build confidence, skills and networks that can pave pathways into better futures beyond bars. If you would like to support our work, and enhance the futures of people in prison across the UK you can make a donation at prison.radio/donate.
