How prison enrichment programmes change lives and reduce reoffending

Creative enrichment in prison refers to the use of creative arts courses, programmes, initiatives, and opportunities for learners in prison. Creative enrichment programmes can help learners learn new skills, find better ways to communicate and find healthier ways for them to channel their emotions.

For people in prison, enrichment programmes can be a valuable tool in helping them better themselves and can also help to reduce reoffending, by helping learners to gain skills and qualifications that they can use upon release and become positive members of society.

Novus arts and enrichment strategy

At Novus, creative enrichment is crucial in allowing us to offer a broad curriculum offer, enabling us to enrich learners' experiences and deliver quality opportunities. It also allows us to engage learners in new ways, often those who have a reluctance to education, which is why we are excited to announce the release of our 2024/2025 creative enrichment strategy.

The strategy aims to continue to promote creative enrichment and to give colleagues and learners access to the arts in all form, providing learners with more opportunities and experiences than ever before. 

With this strategy, our mission is to:

1. Promote creative enrichment and foster a culture of enriched educational experiences throughout Novus education delivery nationally.
2. Across all curriculum areas, enable Novus colleagues and learners to access creative enrichment in all forms, that provides learners with new opportunities that widens their experiences and contributes to their personal development.

Power of creative enrichment for rehabilitation 

A major component of our curriculum is our creative enrichment provision which helps to support learners both in education and their health and wellbeing.

Through outlets such as book clubs, painting, music, and drama, learners are able to develop new skills and find new and positive outlets for their behaviour.

Creative enrichment programmes enable learners to explore education provisions in new ways and can be a way of enthusing and engaging learners in education who otherwise would not participate. Many of our learners have had difficult experiences with both interpersonal relationships and traditional classroom education. 

However, by aligning English, maths, digital and vocational skills with our creative enrichment provision, it can be a successful way to re-engage learners in education and turn those negative experiences with education into a positive.

How do we deliver creative enrichment?

There are many ways that we are able to deliver creative enrichment from partnerships to devised projects and opportunities that Novus colleagues integrate into their curriculum areas to enrich learning.

We work collaboratively with partners to provide dynamic and exciting arts and enrichment opportunities to learners.

We work with partners across a variety of different fields such as music, drama, art, writing and exhibitions to provide innovative and creative opportunities for learning. 

Below are a few examples of the partners we work with and the enrichment opportunities they help to provide:

National Justice Museum

The NJM has worked with our learners and education teams across a variety of different projects. 'Ingenuity, Creativity and Hope'; our ongoing project in partnership with the National Justice Museum, uses the museum's archived collection to share historic objects, crafted by people in prison, as a creative stimulus for art.

Koestler

The Koestler awards are held annually to recognise the contributions of learners to the arts in the criminal justice system.

This year, Novus learners did exceptionally well at the awards with eleven pieces receiving the highest recognition – The Platinum Award. The Koestler Awards are run by prison arts charity, the Koestler Trust. The awards aim to provide feedback and encouragement to entrants of all abilities in visual art, design, writing and music.

Horse and Bamboo

Horse and Bamboo theatre have run the 'Making a Change' programme, aimed at enhancing the reading skills of our learners while ensuring that they benefit from strong family connections while in prison.

All partnerships, projects and initiatives contribute to our 2024/25 creative enrichment strategy which is committed to championing learners, the arts, and communities. 

Dash Arts

Dash arts ran a speech-writing project with a group of learners at HMP Styal called the Public House Project. The workshops that were run at HMP Styal included speech writing, how to perform/deliver speeches, short (anonymous) interviews for the Public House Podcast, group workshops and using a variety of acting and drama techniques to find the most effective ways to deliver a speech.

The aim of the workshops was to playfully and theatrically provide our learners with the tools to speak up about the things that are important to them.

All partnerships, projects and initiatives contribute to our 2024/25 creative enrichment strategy which is committed to championing learners, the arts, and communities.

Can creative enrichment reduce reoffending?

Research suggests that learners who engage with arts, culture and media improve their behaviour both inside and outside prison upon release. One released, learners will have gained the skillset and coping mechanisms necessary to be able to channel their emotions in a healthy way.

All of our enrichment provisions are designed and delivered to support and enhance the quality of education, training and employment opportunities giving learners the best chance of success upon release.

It is becoming more and more clear that creative enrichment programmes help to reduce reoffending. Learners can gain new skills that are transferable to daily life, creating well-rounded individuals who are less likely to reoffend. 

Keep up with Novus

Creative enrichment programmes don’t just support prisoners, they empower communities through reduced reoffending. Novus is dedicated to improving the lives of learners through learning and development.

To find out more about how Novus are supporting learners through creative enrichment take a look at our enrichment page.