Spring at the Croft

This Spring at the Croft we have loads of activities planned for children and adults. We’ll be giving out Easter Eggs which have been kindly donated by visitors and Fare Share Glasgow and we’ve started a Book Exchange for adults and young people. We also have lots of information available in the entrance areas about free and cheap activities during the school holidays, including arts and crafts; sports and museum activities.

At the Croft, we also raise awareness of the work of other organisations, especially around Health and Wellbeing. In March 2019, our two placement students organised a Healthy Social Media Week. This showcased resources from National Online Safety, designed to help parents better understand the social media platforms that children and young people use. The students gave out 120 Social Media Goodie bags for kids, with information and emoji balloons and stickers. We got really positive feedback from children and parents and hope to run a similar session again soon.

National Online Safety, Parents’ Guides: https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/

The Croft was one of the first services in Scotland to provide most of our support in the public areas of the prison. We support visitors before, during and after their visits to the prison, both in person in the Atrium and Waiting Area and remotely via email and our website booking system. In the first 3 months of 2019, we supported 2328 adults and 788 children with 5201 in-depth issues.

The 4 most common categories of in-depth support are: Prison Procedures, especially for First Time Visitors (30% = 1617 people); Keeping in contact with someone whilst they’re in Prison (17% = 931); Emotional Support and Reassurance for Visitors (16% = 884); Travel Expenses Information and Claims (13% = 722)

In the first 3 months of 2019, we have also provided informal support to an additional 973 adults and given out over 1000 free pieces of fruit every month.

At least 50% of the work that we do is ongoing, supporting visitors over multiple visits, often with other organisations such as Families Outside and Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Parkhead. Being at the prison 7 days a week means that visitors can rely on us being at the prison whenever they visit. Visitors often tell us they find this the easiest way to stay in touch with other organisations. For more information, go to our website www.barlinnievisitorscentre.org or email us on help@barlinnievisitorscentre.org