The VIP Project
The VIP (Visiting in Prison) partnership was formed out of a contact seminar in Lancaster in 2006 run by the Education and Culture Lifelong learning programme Grundtvig. The partnership is made up from prisons or organisations affiliated to prisons in Denmark, Poland, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Italy and the UK.
The aim of the partnership is to share good practice around children and families visiting prison and to create a book about visiting for the families.
The purpose of the website is to share our findings and resources with anyone interested in prisons or the difficulties faced by families trying to maintain contact with their loved ones.
The project has been an outstanding success in that we have had more positive outcomes than we could have ever imagined.
A brief resume of the achievements so far:
Denmark has established links with the Human Rights Institute who is very interested in our project from the point of view of the human rights of prisoners' children. In June 2008 the prison ran a week of family activities for prisoners, partners and children - the first ever event like this at the prison.
Navigating the Site
To view the content from the contributors of each country you must click on either the flags at the top of the page or the alternative links at the bottom of the page. Once there, each country's section will be divided in to 5 distinct sections: our prison; our project; our coordinator; our book launch and lastly, the benefits resulting from our project. On some pages you will be able to read about the VIP project in the native language of the participating countries. These links can be found by clicking underneath the flag in the right column.Poland's involvement in the project has lead to the 'school' in the prison being seen in a far more positive light and the management appreciates the hard work they are doing. By being involved with the VIP project and contributing to the 2 books & 1 CD written by Poland, prisoners are now aware that they can still play a part in their children's lives.
Finland has created a workbook for children where they can write and draw about their feelings and thoughts about visiting dad in prison. They have also continued to work with children and families on the amazing 'Family Camps'.
Germany's book is used as a tool to help develop creativity for children in the hope that they will better cope with visiting dad in prison. As a result of the VIP project their family programme, which includes a structured 3 hour meeting of the prisoner with their families to strengthen the relations between them, has become an accepted part of the regime.
The Portugese book contains thoughts and feelings of children and prisoners about the 'special visits' in a new designated room for families that have been introduced as a result of the partnership. The project is being evaluated by a university, and if it is successful it may be extended to all prisons in Portugal.
The Italian partners have used their 'retirement' to become actively involved in their local prison and have managed to write a book, offer language support and create a new room for family visits. They have too disseminated the project through a seminar and they have established a network with local and national associations involved in supporting the inmates and their families.
The UK has developed 3 books for children and using best practice from Denmark has extended all special family visits to 5 hours to include food and sport sessions. E mailing and DVD's have also been introduced to help maintain family ties.
As part of the project, the VIP team visited each member's own prison, where they were given access to see how prisons run in other countries. The visits proved to be extremely interesting as well as enjoyable. Some thoughts on these visits can be found on the link to the left of the page.
