Family Days
Generic Family Visit
There are several different types of activities for the special family visits. We have card making, lucky bags, activity colouring sheets, pass the parcel and musical statues. We have story telling. There is often special appearance from Doris the dinosaur (the prison mascot). All the families have the opportunity to have their photographs taken.
The itinerary is similar for all family visit days. Everyone arrives for 8.45 am for the morning visits and 1pm for the afternoon visit. The families are taken up into the legal visits area in the prison.
We start with allowing the families to spend time together and then introduce the craft activities, encouraging the parents to take part with the children. We then have story time which gives us time to clear away the activities and set up the buffet. After the story has finished the special appearance is made by Doris. Family photographs are taken. Once everyone has eaten the party games begin.
This is aimed at children from 2-10yrs
Gym and Cooking Days
These days are very similar to the above: mum/carer arrive at the visits centre for about 9am, at 9.30 the children are taken into the prison gym where they play games and spend special time with their dad. Whilst the children are in the gym, mum stays in the centre where she has some special time for herself, a beauty therapist comes to the centre and teaches them some wellbeing techniques, and they can chat with other mums who are experiencing some of the same problems of having a loved one in prison. At 11.45 everyone joins together for a buffet lunch in the legal visits area, after lunch we play a family quiz. The visit ends around 3pm.
The cooking day is a similar structure to the gym day, the only difference is that children go into education and cook a healthy meal with dad and then they all eat together as a family.
These visits are aimed at children 6+
Family Visits 2011
February 2011
Wednesday 23rd
Cooking Visit
Children aged 6+
March 2011
Wednesday 16th
Adult Visit
B,C,D,E,F,H Wings Only
April 2011
Wednesday 6th
Gym Visit
Children aged 6+
Wednesday 13th
Easter Family Visit (Generic)
Children aged 0-14 years
PM ONLY
May 2011
Wednesday 4th
Adult Visit
A Wing ONLY
June 2011
Wednesday 1st
2 Family Visits (Generic)
Children aged 0-14 years
PM ONLY
July 2011
Wednesday 13th
Adult Visit
B,C,D,E,F,H Wings Only
Wednesday 27th
Gym Visit
Children aged 6 years +
August 2011
Wednesday 10th
Cooking Visit
Children aged 6 years +
Wednesday 24th
Family Visit
Children aged 0-14 years
PM ONLY
September 2011
Wednesday 14th
Adult visit
A Wing ONLY
October 2011
Wednesday 26th
Gym Visit
November 2011
Wednesday 9th
Adult visit
B,C,D,E,F,H Wings Only
December 2011
Wednesday 7th
Adult Family Visit
A Wing ONLY
Tuesday 20th & Thursday 22nd
AM & PM
Christmas (Generic) Family Visit
Family Visit Evaluation
02/06/2010
Who took part?
There were 12 families in total who took part in the visit. The visit ran from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. There were 12 prisoners, 12 partners and 23 children on the visit. The children were aged from 6mths to 12 years.
What did we do?
On the visit we had a different range of craft activities for the parents and children to take part together as a family. The craft activities ranged from colouring in and decorating photograph frames, book marks, card making and making bracelets and necklaces’. We had pass the parcel for all the children to take part inn. All the families had their photograph taken together the photograph will be placed in the photo frame the children decorated and given to the prisoner A buffet was also provided for them to enjoy together as a family. Evaluations were completed by the prisoner, partner and the children. The afternoon went really well and fun and enjoyment was had by all.
Here are some of the comments we received…
What was the best thing about the visit?
“Spending time with my family and being able to walk about with them”
“Spending time together”
“Extra time with the children”
“Seeing the children and dad play together”
“Getting to spend time together as a family”
“The best thing is to be together eating together & being able to get up without any restrictions”
“Much better than the normal visit”
What was the worse thing about the visit?
“Leaving”
“Short time, two hours is not long enough”
“Not been able to buy things from the shop”
“Not been able to take food back to cells”
“Have them more often”
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