A Christian project helping fathers in prison to nurture their parenting and relationship skills has just been awarded nearly half a million pounds in fresh funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Invisible Walls is run by Spurgeons Children's Charity and works with fathers in prison and post-release.
The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded £450,000 to the project to fund its work over the next three years, while the Maurice & Hilda Laing Charitable Trust has announced it is to provide a grant of £10,000 a year to the programme over the same time period.
Further support has come from the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner, which is providing training for the Spurgeons team to spot signs of adverse childhood experiences and help in recovery.
Invisible Walls aims to strengthen family relationships with a wider goal of reducing the reoffending rates among fathers upon release, and improve their future prospects.
The programme runs monthly family days offering families a chance to spend time together on fun activities, and a homework club support by local schools in which children are able to bring their homework to work on with their dads.
As part of the programme's StoryBook Dads project, fathers in prison are able to record themselves reading stories that their children can listen to at home.
"In the early days of custody, fathers can be extremely anxious and distressed about their family circumstances," said Spurgeons' Kerry Longhorn, who heads Invisible Walls.
"It is through engaging early with fathers in custody that we can help them, working with our Dads Reps – fathers in custody who volunteer to support other fathers – to make them aware of the support that we can provide, both for themselves and their families," she added.
Spurgeons Deputy Chief Executive Paul Ringer welcomed the fresh round of funding.
"This is a tremendous vote of confidence in Invisible Walls' track record in strengthening family relationships, of giving hope to those families who are living with imprisonment and reducing the reoffending rates of fathers on release," he said.
"There's growing evidence that family support and maintaining family ties is not only important for the well-being of prisoners and their families but can also help prisoners' reintegration into the community following release," he added.
