Volunteering for RECOOP provides challenging opportunities, valuable experience and offers specialist training and support. If you think you may be interested in such an opportunity, please contact the RECOOP project manager.
Read on to find out what some of our volunteers think about their experience with RECOOP.
Health and Social Care Student at Plymouth University
About me
I am 22 years of age and I am in my third year at University, I am a mum and I work as a healthcare assistant through a nursing company. I have been volunteering at a Prison for almost a year and I thoroughly enjoy it. I am very much interested in the criminal justice system and would hope to gain employment after university in this field.
Where it all started
A fellow volunteer for RECOOP came to a lecture at University and asked if any students would...
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When I saw a request in my local parish magazine for volunteers to work with older offenders, I almost turned the page without a second thought. But a list suggesting possible interests volunteers might bring with them caught my eye. Poetry was among them. It took me three weeks of reflection, questioning and consideration before I contacted the Project Manager. I had an interview and requested a tour of the prison to see how I felt in this environment. The Project...
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I had just moved to Exeter and was semi- retired. Exeter is a new city to me and I was looking for something different to do to fill in time. Volunteering felt like it would provide a stimulus but I wasn’t interested in helping out at charity shops or fund raising. A visit to the Exeter CVS gave me a list of volunteering activities and the stand-out option was running a book club at Exeter Prison for the over 50s.
My reasons for choosing this are entirely selfish. I...
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I first got involved RECOOP as a volunteer a couple of years ago when I saw a requirement within the local Teignbridge Volunteers web site for the Older Offenders Project at Channings Wood Prison. I had lived close by and often wondered when driving past the prison what life was like on the "other side of the fence”!
The project suited my lifestyle as I was unable to volunteer during working days - I work full time in Plymouth.
Having completed the training, I commenced I...
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I was present at the first meeting in HMP Exeter when RECOOPs Liz Ropschitz came in with Dick Stokes of Age UK to meet with the prisoners aged over 50 and to encourage them to start an over 50’s group under the RECOOP umbrella.
A group was formed that day and I agreed to do the newsletter.
RECOOP was of enormous help to the older 50’s in HMP Exeter, providing speakers, other activities, a book club, with something occurring at least once a week. I took strength from...
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Victim Support Employee and Criminology Graduate, Placement Student with ACOOP October '08 - May '00
During the final year of my Criminology degree at the University of the West of England I was given the opportunity to complete a placement module through the Reducing Reoffending Partnership South West and was linked up with the Age Concern Older Offenders Project (ACOOP), with whom my placement was focused. My main task was to carry out an evaluation into the “Health, Social Care and Resettlement of Older Women Offenders” which required me to begin by conducting some background research...
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I volunteered for RECOOP leading up to and during my final year of uni. I chose to write my dissertation on how free the prisoner could be; I tried to make it as practical as it was philosophical. Having the opportunity to volunteer in HMP Channings Wood meant that I could speak to the men about their experiences and gain a wider understanding than I would have from any texts.
I was really happy to graduate with a First Class degree in 'Criminology and Social Policy' from Brighton...
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Your contribution will help us to continue and further develop our valuable work with older offenders