Only Connect is London’s creative criminal justice charity, rooted in community. Our vision is a more connected, human and just society, where we all choose a crime free life. We believe in creating a community for our Members - empowering them to fulfil their potential.
We work with anyone aged 16+ who has been recently been convicted of an offence. We work in prisons, in the community and in our members centres. We provide support services, creative projects and progressions.
We do this effectively; in 2014/15, over 65% of our Members progressed into education or employment or training.
We believe in the idea of ‘Handshake, not Handout’. This means our Members are enabled to design and deliver solutions to their own problems, and problems faced by other Members and their peers across London. We aim to equip a generation of people with the resilience and skills to address the challenges they face, and become positive agents for change in their communities – ‘assets’ not ‘liabilities’ for London.
We achieve impact in two ways. Firstly, we work in prison and across youth justice services, engaging at every point in the custody cycle in order to reduce offending. We see the people we work with as assets not liabilities, with a contribution to make to their families, communities and wider society.
Secondly, we provide ex-offenders with Membership of one of our unique clubs in central and west London. The clubs support Members to support themselves, unlocking their potential through training, support and creative opportunities.
Our hands on work in the community means that we are in a strong position to advocate for young people at risk, prisoners and ex-offenders, drawing on data and evidence to act as their voice in the wider policy and action debate.
We deliver a number of projects including Catering, Theatre, Music, Enterprise and Mentoring - all designed to support our members to progress.
