The Safe Ground Story
The Start of Safe Ground
In 1991 Polly Freeman and Antonia Rubinstein started teaching at HMYOI Feltham. Drawing upon classic literature and, using a variety of drama techniques, they aimed to engage young people on remand and motivate them to present original plays to their peers. Popular and well attended, the sessions were named by the young men Safe Ground a place where a bond of trust is formed and built on.
In 1995 Safe Ground was established as a charity that uses drama to address the needs of prisoners and young people at risk of social exclusion. The first venture was a production of The Tempest at HMYOI Huntercombe. This was followed by The Doors, an original play inspired by Gullivers Travels and developed by prisoners from YOI Feltham. Safe Ground commissioned professional sound and lighting technicians, designers and actors, and the play toured prisons and teacher training colleges across England.
Working with prisoners
The Doors was followed by a three-year residency at HMP Woodhill. This enabled the charity to explore different performance and production styles and techniques with a great number of remand prisoners. During this period we began to work closely with staff and security officers to establish working practices appropriate to a prison setting.
In 1996 Safe Ground produced a drugs prevention film and education pack with young offenders; Ryans Choice (1997) went on to win the International Visual Communication Awards (IVCA) for best short film, director, actor and script. As well as being adopted in schools in Milton Keynes and Luton, Ryans Choice has been taken on by the No Way Trust where it is used in schools through NW and NE England.
The 7 Ages of Man (1996) used puppets to stimulate a response to the popular speech from Shakespeares As You Like It. Children from primary and secondary schools, probationers, young offenders, adult prisoners and pensioners participated in the drama project that included recording audio letters and different interpretations of the speech. This work led to The Flock, a musical by and for young truants commissioned by Wandsworth Borough Council. This toured teacher training institutes, schools, pupil referral units and finally HMP Wandsworth, where prisoners responded by raising their concerns about their own inability to be good parents: this ultimately provoked Safe Grounds involvement in parenting and family ties education.
Collaboration and Validation
At the same time, the Prison Service was searching for effective methods of motivating prisoners to participate in education. We were approached by Richard Tilt, then Director General of the Prison Service, who asked us to develop a project that would enable prison staff to use our drama skills for this purpose. This led to a groundbreaking partnership that combined the needs of both prisoners and the Prison Service to produce Safe Grounds Parents for the 21st Century (1999-2002). Working with staff and prisoners from 14 establishments including HMPs Gartree, Moorlands, Wandsworth and Woodhill, we finally developed Family Man (2002) and Fathers Inside (2004). The project involved collaboration with Central St Martins School for Art and Design, the Dyslexia Institute, and Claydon Heeley Jones Mason for the design and marketing of course materials. It also included the making of a short film Blinda written and produced by prisoners at HMP Wandsworth. This won an IVCA award for best educational film.
Both courses have been evaluated by the National Foundation for Educational Research (2002), while De Montfort University have conducted a further study of Fathers Inside at HMP Ashwell (2004), all with extremely positive results. With support from the Offenders Learning and Skills Unit (DfES) we have been focusing our energies on embedding Family Man and Fathers Inside throughout the male prison estate, with 31 establishments having delivered these courses to date. We are constantly gathering data, analysing the progress of our work, and since 2005 have started to exchange ideas with agencies associated with family ties in order to establish more robust and appropriate progression routes for course graduates. Family Man and Fathers Inside are now amongst the most researched and evaluated bespoke prison educational courses in the UK Prison system.
April 2006
Patrons
Maria Aitken
Sir Richard Tilt
David Evans
Sir John Mortimer CBE QC
Lord Ramsbotham