Aid & Abet bring together an active and committed group of people who have been through offending, prison and addiction.  Since March 2015, we have made contact with around 60 people about to leave prison, or who have recently been released.  Our aim is to make sure that each individual leaving prison has somewhere to stay and some money in their pocket on the first night after release, and to stick with them through the challenging first few days of freedom.

We visit prisoners who are due to be release within 3 months and build up a trust based relationship within this time, also assessing the needs of the prison. We have a peer led approach, depending on what the person feels is their main area of need. 

We then attend a gate pick up with the person on their release, supporting them with their housing presentations and benefit claims. The support that comes afterward will be based on the person and the needs they have identified. Our support is on-going in the community, and does not have a time scale attached. Each person is an individual, with individual needs.

We want to ensure that prisoners have the round the clock support from our peer mentors if needed.  We also to try to enable a smooth transition from prison into the community, and offer the crucial support in the first 72 hours of their release.   

Through membership of SMN we are keen to learn from other mentoring projects to take on any tips that might be useful to us to improve our service and to be recognised as a good quality peer mentoring service.