Building bridges to the community: the Kirkham Family Connectors (KFC) Prison Programme

Families represent a form of social capital that can influence effective reintegration depending on the strength of the bond, and the nature of the relationship. An innovative training programme delivered at HMP Kirkham was designed to mobilise the strengths of prisoners, in the period prior to their release, by engaging family members as bridges to community resources and by a shared planning process designed to build stronger bonds between prisoners and their families. The conceptual framework for the Kirkham Family Connectors (KFC) project is based on the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and Assertive Linkage (assisting individuals in engaging with such assets). The project aimed to build prisoner resettlement capital by identifying what each prisoner's skills and strengths were, what enthused and engaged them, and to create partnerships with family members to establish accessible pathways to related resources in the communities to which they would be returning on their release. Evaluation data show that the programme generated hope and a sense of partnership among participants and key lessons for a strengths‐based intervention to support the prison‐community transition. All three of the participating groups – staff, prisoners, and families – reported positive engagement and an emerging sense of hope, and group cohesion through shared goals. There is considerable scope for both peer and probation staff delivery of the programme in the future, and for extending the scale and the scope of the project.