Works for Freedom
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Overview
What is Works for Freedom?
The Works for Freedom project is a web resource about supporting practice that empowers. It is one of CCJS's projects that aims to share and develop knowledge.
The starting point for the project is that people's unmet needs shouldn't cause them to be criminalised. We are interested in practice that seeks to meet people's needs, whether that takes place in or outside of the criminal justice system.
The Works for Freedom project is interested in practice that:
- Is enabling and empowering for its users
- Is not coercive and does not judge
- Puts the person and their needs at the centre of practice
- Works across silos and boundaries, to meet people's multiple needs
Want to contribute?
We want Works for Freedom to be a place where practitioners, researchers, policy makers and service-users can share ideas and experience about what supports people's needs.
On the site, you can contribute by suggesting examples of empowering practice, or supporting policy and research, and by commenting on our blog. Works for Freedom is also on Twitter, providing a network of people and organisations with whom to share and network information about empowering practice. Follow Works for Freedom on Twitter.
What's the thinking behind Works for Freedom?
People with needs, rather than 'offenders'
We are interested in people's needs, needs any of us could have, rather than the fact that they have been convicted of a criminal offence.
Needs rather than pathways
The National Offender Management Service identified seven resettlement pathways to support people out of the criminal justice system. Looked at another way, these `pathways' can also a way of identifying the single or multiple needs a person might have that lead them to become caught up in the criminal justice system. So, we have arranged information on Works for Freedom in terms of the needs a person might have, and sought to find practice that supports those needs, policy and research that show what practice might best do this, and organisations that can provide more information.
To talk to us about this project please email
You can visit Works for Freedom here
In 2007, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies looked at the requirements of a proposed project to support men with multiple needs, who have been convicted of offences. You can find more about this project here.