On July 29th the CEV - Centre for European Volunteering held the Volpris Multiplier event where over 40 participants had the opportunity to explore the “Minimum Requirements for Volunteering Programmes in Prison Settings” and the European CJS Volunteer Coordinators Training Programme developed within the Volpris project.

Become part of the Volpris community by joining its European Platform: https://volprison.eu/

The DGRSP considers the collaboration of volunteers in the prison environment as an aspect with an important role in the process of preparing inmates for their release, not only by opening up prison establishments to the participation of the community in the execution of sentences and measures depriving them of their freedom but also because of the impact that volunteers can have on the outside (DGRSP,2016).

The Final Conference of the Volpris Initiative “Prisons Managing Volunteers in EU”, organized by the General Directorate of Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP) and Aproximar, Cooperative of Social Solidarity, is taking place today in Portugal.
This conference is to present the new Resources for Capacity Building for Prison Volunteering Organisations, as well as to explore opportunities for collaboration and replication.

If you are interested in learning more about this initiative,  find all the information and resources developed over the last 3 years here

Portuguese partners are organizing the final national Conference on VOLPRIS' experience. The Conference will be covering the theme "Resources for the Volunteer Service Organisations that work inside prisons". The event will take place in Sintra Prison on July 21, 2022, at 10:30 CET and will be held in Portuguese.

The involvement of people from the community in the prison environment - through Volunteer Service Organisations - can introduce opportunities for social participation, strengthen social ties, and can also reinforce the rehabilitation efforts conducted by prison services to prepare the sentenced person's return to a penalty of deprivation of liberty to society.
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The Portuguese Directorate-General for Reinsertion and Prison Services and Aproximar, Social Solidarity Cooperative invite you to the final event, where new Resources for the Training of VSO that work inside prisons will be presented.
Registration is free, but limited to the number of seats available.

Last project meeting of the Volpris project took place on 14 and 15 June in Bremen, Germany under the coordination of Bremen Ministry of Justice and Constitution.

“Qualification of Volunteering in prison settings” was the theme of the Seminar that took place at the Training Division of the Portuguese Prison and Probation Directorate, in Caxias (Portugal).

The involvement of people from the community in prison life – through Volunteering Service Organisations (VSO) – can introduce opportunities for social participation, strengthen social ties, and can also reinforce rehabilitation efforts led by prison services to prepare for the return of the sentenced person to the society.

Research in the field of volunteering at SJC is scarce. Prisons and organizations that guide and support volunteers often lack the information, resources and tools necessary to support and value volunteers or to carry out a prison assessment to identify volunteer needs. The partners of the VOLPRIS initiative came together with the aim of contributing to a committed and active society, where volunteering is an expression of solidarity and European values. In the same way, we want to have safer communities, where offenders are fully supported in their integration into their communities, where they can address the factors and problems that led to the commission of crime, and consequently, live a normative life, without the presence of the crime. (https://www.aproximar.pt/.../gestao-dos-voluntarios-em...)

More than 30 representatives from different prisons in Portugal joined this Seminar and the VOLPRIS initiative.

Aproximar via Department for Criminal Justice System

Last 11 of March, another online Discussion Forum took place, where the emerging practice in valuing community volunteers in the criminal justice system was shared, making this practice more effective and finding out what we can learn from other fields of volunteering!

We were pleased to collaborate with Japan Hogoshi (Volunteer Probation Officer) Federation, the Japanese Ministry of Justice, the CEV - Centre for European Volunteering, and other esteemed speakers.

Thank you also to the participants who joined the event