Always Hope: Celebrating Our Journey and Looking Ahead
blog | Words Jessie Ben-Ami | 02 Aug 2024
Since 2018, the Always Hope project has been working with a dedicated team of prison, probation and children’s leaving care services, supported by other committed partners from prison reform, VCSE and those with lived experience to transform systems of support around young men with care leaver status in the criminal justice system.
Celebrating our journey
Last week, we gathered together to celebrate our journey so far, reflecting on both the triumphs and challenges we’ve encountered when working together to enact long term culture change across the services surrounding people with care experience.
Over the course of the Always Hope project we have travelled through insight gathering, to collaborative co-design, piloting and finally, to embedding;
We shared the transformative effect that story-telling about the journey of young men through the care system (known as deep-dives) can have for practitioners. This process helped us to reflect on what it might mean that 25% of the prison population is care experienced and how that drove our desire to work differently.
We reflected on the impact that one really dedicated person can have in provoking practice and pushing for ‘even better if’ when co-designing new approaches.
We celebrated the successes of some of the young people involved in Always Hope, as well as the positive impact the programme has had – including this way of working being integrated into national best practice guidance.
Our natural instinct is always to move forward with innovation, ‘what next, where else can we take this?’, are valid and energising questions. However, it’s equally important that those involved in long-term, transformative innovation also stop to celebrate how far we have come. As a team we left feeling proud, privileged and emotional about the session as a testament to the commitment and passion of those in the room to drive the work as a collective.
What’s next for Always Hope?
As we move forward, the Innovation Unit is gearing up to try to answer those latter questions. We are exploring how we might co-design a new initiative specifically for women, while also working to embed the Always Hope model more deeply both locally and nationally. This process will be enriched by the invaluable insights and suggestions gathered from those who have done the hard work
We are immensely grateful for the continued support and collaboration from our funders, The Oak Foundation, MOJ LLIF, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Barrow Cadbury Trust for their support so far, and also our partners, whose expertise will be crucial as we shape the future of Always Hope. Together, we are not just imagining a better future—we are building it.
Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to contribute further to this important work.
If you are interested about hearing more about Always Hope, or want to know how we can work with you to develop transformative system-change work, please get in touch with Jessie Ben-Ami