Transforming Rehabilitation, Transforming lives
Sova needs your help to support people who are trying to change their lives for the better.
Have you ever considered volunteering to support an adult who is involved in the criminal justice system? Do you think you have the skills to support someone to make better choices, and see a different future for themselves? If so, then please read on....
The way our Probation Services across England are being delivered is changing. In a nut-shell, offenders who pose a low to medium risk will now be managed by newly formed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC’s) rather than being publicly run by the probation service. This change has been known as ‘transforming rehabilitation’ and has been driven by central government.
Having worked with the existing probation service for many years - Sova are now working with a number of the CRC’s across England to integrate our mentoring support for offenders in custody, on release from prison and in the community into their models. We believe that the additional support provided by our network of community volunteers is vital if we are to help reduce the re-offending rates – particularly amongst young adults and ‘short-sentence’ offenders. In order to be successful in providing this support, we are looking for additional volunteers, and are seeking to increase our network of volunteers from 850 individuals to 2000 over the next 12 months.
We have 40 years experience in recruiting, training and deploying volunteers to work with offenders and ex-offenders; we believe that volunteers, in the simple act of giving up their time to provide support and guidance, can create genuine and lasting change.
We also believe that volunteers should be properly supported and that the volunteering they do with Sova should benefit them in their own personal lives. For that reason we offer all of our volunteers the opportunity to gain Level 2 accreditation in a number of areas (for example, Mentoring Skills). They are provided with ongoing support and supervision and access to additional training.
Sova will be recruiting volunteers in a variety of roles to help meet the demands of the transforming rehabilitation agenda. If you wish to find out more about these roles, and how you can contribute to changing someone’s life for the better, you can sign up for regular updates here...
If you are interested in other volunteering opportunities with Sova, please check our current project listing...
If you want to speak to someone directly about volunteering with Sova, please contact: [email protected]