"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret J. Wheatley
In late May / early June this year I was invited by Novus to go in and do some work at HMP Durham, a prison for approximately 900 men in the centre of the city.
HMP Durham is a remand / reception prison, and so a lot of the people there are waiting for a court date, sentencing or to find out where they will be moved. This restlessness and uncertainty definitely showed in the work they produced and the stories they told me. Having only been in HMP Northumberland before, I had got quite accustomed to my little route from reception to the education block and the folks I usually met there, so I was quite nervous to go to a brand new place!
What the programme entailed
Because the turnover of learners in HMP Durham is quite high, we decided to go short and sweet with just three sessions in the hopes that the majority of the group will stay the same and be able to see the project to the end.
With help from their brilliant English tutor Amy, the learners chose their own theme: Local and Community History. They were keen to talk about what community actually means, how does a community thrive, and what they see their role in their local community being upon their release.
I tried to bring in a range of stimulus materials for the group, from poetry by a range of local writers to baffling local myths and legends like the Lambton Worm and the Easington Hare.
Work by M and A in response to Dean Atta's poem 'I Come From'
Making mini zines
Some learners fed back to me that they don't always finish these programmes with something concrete to show for their participation (I, too, am guilty of not considering this enough when I plan sessions), so I decided that in the final session we would work to produce eight-page zines.
Once they had learnt to fold the zines themselves, each individual was able to stick in all the writing they'd completed during our time together, adding stickers, tape, illustrations etc. One group member designed the front cover, which we had photocopied so that everyone had the same. It was a great way to allow them space to express their individual creativity whilst also having a cover design that celebrated the connection they'd made as a group.
A huge thank you to Ashleigh, Amy and the rest of the Novus team at HMP Durham for inviting me in and helping to facilitate these sessions. It is a very different prison to Northumberland with a unique set of challenges, but I learnt a lot during my time there and am looking forward to going back in the future.
Novus also wrote a brilliant article on LinkedIn about the project which you can read here.
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