Young Adults Volunteering Event--User Voice in association with ICPR

User Voice in association with ICPR held an event which gave service users and third sector organisations the chance to share their views and experiences about how to make the most of volunteering opportunities.

Representatives from a wide variety of charities and third sector organisations shared their concerns that volunteering opportunities were not as beneficial as they could be, and that their adverts only reached a small proportion of service users. Young adults with experience of the criminal justice system, and that work on User Voice councils, gave valuable insights into what makes a good volunteering opportunity and offered advice on how to make them accessible to a wider variety of young adults.

Volunteering in the community is an extremely valuable way for service users to gain experience that can help facilitate their move towards employment. Having the opportunity to discuss these issues with the people providing the positions will help maximise the reach and benefit of voluntary roles for both the organisations and service users.

Many thanks to the ICPR for co-producing this extremely successful event!

NEW ENGLAND YOUR ENGLAND FILMS: Max and Mark

These new videos, first screened at our 'Marketplace of Ideas' Conference earlier in October, are now available to view online anywhere, anytime, and you can also share them with friends, family and colleagues! 

The films are part of the England Your England series of short documentaries directed by the UK filmmaker Matt Hopkins.They are incredibly powerful and we would like to thank all those at Your England who made them possible.

Max Tucker is a full time Programme Manager at User Voice. He began volunteering in July 2012 and has been in his current position since July 2013. Max is currently working on council projects with London Probation Trust (LPT).

Mark Nash is a full time Programme Manager at User Voice. He is currently working on council projects with London Probation Trust, HMP Maindstone and HMYOI Aylesbury. 

MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS User Voice Conference 2013

CLICK HERE for more info and photos as well as the videos screened on the night and a new film of the event itself!

On Wednesday 9th October we hosted our 'Marketplace of Ideas' conference in Parliament at Portcullis House. 

Guests included Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, academics and policy executives, those from the Prison, Probation and Youth Offending sectors and representatives from national charities and social enterprises. 

The event was a fantastic opportunity for User Voice staff and volunteers as well as the delegates that attended. To see so much passion for and dedication to Service User involvement was really encouraging and we’re sure the enthusiasm seen at the event will mean User Voice continues to grow so that more Service Users can have a voice in improving the institutions they’re involved in. 

A special thanks must go out to the venue staff as well our volunteers and Council Members who represented User Voice so well and did the organisation and themselves extremely proud.

CLICK HERE for more info and photos as well as the videos screened on the night and a new film of the event itself!

ELECTION RESULTS: HMP Birmingham and HMP Maidstone Prison Council Election Results

In September User Voice co-ordinated the elections for the Prison Council's in HMP Birmingham and HMP Maidstone.

The results were really encouraging with overall turnout increasing by 19% in HMP Birmingham and 9% in HMP Maidstone.

For more detailed results from these elections, please click here for HMP Birmingham election and here for HMP Maidstone.

If you would like to learn more about our Prison Councils generally, please click here