Bristol Rovers FC and Bristol Rovers Community Trust are delighted to have been ‘twinned’ with HMP Bristol to help tackle the high UK reoffending rate.
Launched in October 2018, the Twinning Project aims to bring together leading professional football clubs and prisons across the UK to use football as a catalyst for change, to provide real opportunities to better prepare prisoners for release, find employment and reduce reoffending which is a huge cost to both the country and local communities.
32 football clubs, including Bristol Rovers, have agreed to engage in the Twinning Project and pair with their local prison. Through the initiative, selected football clubs, in conjunction with other football bodies, will work with PE officers from the Prison Service to deliver coaching, stewarding, lifestyle skills and other employability-based qualifications to prisoners in order to help prepare them for release. Additionally, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) will deliver refereeing courses. These qualifications will provide a vital route to paid employment which has been proven as a key factor in reducing reoffending and helping prisoners to rebuild their lives.
Adam Tutton, Community Trust CEO commented: “We are delighted to have been selected to twin with HMP Bristol. Currently in the UK, 63.8% of adults reoffend in the first 12 months after release and lack of paid employment on release is the number 1 issue for reoffending. The support and qualifications we are able to offer these offenders will help rebuild their lives and offer them routes into paid employment, as well as reducing the huge financial burden reoffending costs the UK taxpayer”.
Other clubs involved with the Twinning Project include Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.