Accessibility

Talk To Us - 0808 800 5792

Change Wallpaper

You are here

Your Voice

Our new website needs to work for you, tell us what you would like to see on it?

3 months 3 weeks ago

 

Voice works with young people in a range of settings, including Young Offender Institutions. One young person, Jerome*, describes in his own words his own experiences in prison.
 
"When I came to jail about 4 months ago I was very scared and petrified and emotionally scarred.  Voice were very easy to get hold of, I knew they were people that could help me with issues and problem solving so I rang the helpline and my advocate came to see me.  She is very helpful, very non-judgemental and very thoughtful. She helped me by referring me to family liaison and Social Services to help get money and trainers.
 
Having Voice Advocacy has made my time in jail much less worse. Advocacy have helped me out with other issues with young people as I have been on wings where other young people have threatened me. Advocacy listened to what I said and took action to get me moved when I was in danger, they kept trying as it was difficult to move me as I have problems with people in different wings so the prison didn’t know where to put me.
 
They also attended my ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody & Teamwork) review and listened to me when I was upset or depressed or self harming. I ask good questions and they give good answers. They go out of their way to make young people happy. If you are grumpy with them or rude to them they still work with you and they don’t judge you for the crimes you have committed. Without Advocacy in this prison I would find it ten times harder to cope."
 
*Name has been changed
melanie.cavanagh

9 months 4 weeks ago
This website is great and I'm so pleased that it's there to make life easier for young people in care today. I'm now 33 & spent my teen years in care, it still affects me to this day. The instability of the care system & placements has made it very difficult for me to forge meaningful relationships as an adult and my self esteem is still very affected by this. I'm in intensive counselling & on anti-depressants. However, I do have a very beautiful, bright, gorgeous 15 year old daughter and I also got a 2:1 degree last year, I'm happily married and starting work as a teacher of adults in essential skills in September. It IS possible to do well, being in Care doesn't have to be a life sentence, although I do wish there was somewhere I could go to talk about my experience with the Care system, even now almost 20 years later.
manda

1 year 2 months ago

Hi! We have created this comments wall so that you can tell us what you think about Voice, about this website, or about anything at all related to being in care or living away from home. Any feedback - good or bad - is welcome, but bear in mind that we will be moderating this page for inappropriate language!

melanie.cavanagh

1 year 2 months ago
Hi there! I just wanted to say I'm really impressed with the new website and I think it looks great. With it's user friendly format, appealing colours/designs and interactive options, it is just what Voice needed. As a future recommendation, I think perhaps a section under 'Fundraising' or just the 'Gallery' could be added where there are pictures to show the great fundraising activities that people have undertaken.  I'm also really looking forward to the launch of the new Recipe Project! Keep up the great work :-) Camelia
Camelia Borg

To post a comment on the comments wall you must be logged in and your comment will have to be approved by a member of staff before it goes live to the comments wall.

Thank you!