Meet matt, a prisoner and create participant
Inside Change is our project that enables prisoners to explore financial literacy through radio drama.
In September 2022, a group of prisoners worked with our professional drama and recording artists James and Tony to write, perform and record a radio play. Centred on personal finance issues, this enabled them to develop their financial capability in areas such as budgeting, debit, APR and money choices. The project has been designed to support a smoother transition back into the community on release, with new literacy, finance and social skills, and improved self-esteem.
We spoke to Matt (23) about his experiences on the project.
“I’ve done nothing like this before at all. We’ve learnt lots of things about money management, such as mortgages. We’ve learnt how to handle debt, build credit and move forward in the future with money.
“I signed up because I thought it would be interesting to try something different, like with the radio stuff, and learn something new. It’s been a good laugh. I feel comfortable, I feel like I’ve learnt a lot of things, met some good people.
“It’s taught me how to build credit and certain mortgage options you can take out, and basically helping me move forward with future decisions because I’m still quite young. I can put forward what I’ve learnt to other people who have the same worries as I did before starting the project.
“It was really good working with James. He’s good energy, very positive and he listened to everyone who speaks to him. It was good working with the group. I’ll speak to them more often now than I did originally.
“It’s just been fun to be honest with you. It’s been really, really good, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve also learnt that I’m terrible at doing a Philip Schofield accent!
“Doing something creative is important because it takes you out of prison and makes you feel like you’re not in prison for the time you’re here.”
Inside Change at this prison was funded by The Boris Karloff Charitable Foundation and Santander UK Foundation Limited.