INSIDE CHANGE
“I’m looking forward to hearing the play on National Prison Radio. It’ll give me bragging rights! I would do this every day. It was the most enjoyable activity I’ve done in prison.”
PRISONER
the project
Inside Change enables prisoners to explore financial literacy through radio drama and visual art. Working with a professional drama artist/visual artist in a series of high-quality creative arts workshops, they write, perform and record a radio play or create original artwork centred around personal finance issues, helping them to develop their financial capability in areas such as budgeting, debit, APR and money choices. This supports a smoother transition back into the community on release, with new literacy, finance and social skills, and improved self-esteem.
the need
Government research suggests that lack of financial literacy presents a significant barrier to the effective resettlement of prisoners back into the community. According to The Prisoner Finance Gap, many prisoners and ex-prisoners recognise that they have poor financial management skills and find it hard to budget. Lack of financial skills is particularly marked amongst young prisoners who often report spending money as soon as they receive it. Some reflected that it was hard to learn how to manage money while in prison as everything was provided, so they did not have an opportunity to develop their budgeting skills.
“[Projects] like these make people more aware of financial issues and have the potential to reduce crime by reducing debt.”
participant
The research also highlighted that poor levels of literacy and numeracy were seen to be detrimental to developing financial management skills, exacerbated by a lack of awareness of financial issues or limited inclination to address them. According to a Literacy Trust study, 48% of prisoners have a reading level at or below Level 1 (the standard expected for ages 5-7), while an even greater proportion (65%) have a numeracy level at or below Level 1.
our impact
0%
OF PRISONERS ENHANCED THEIR COMMUNICATION SKILLS
0%
OF PRISONERS IMPROVED THEIR CONFIDENCE
