Page 20 - 2024 TTPCA Report

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Strengthening volunteer participation
The twin pillars of TTPCA’s chaplaincy service are professional chaplains and volunteers. Volunteers deliver the bulk of group services and some vital individual care to prisoners. TTPCA has strengthened its volunteer participation over
the year in two areas: growth in volunteer numbers (those joining TTPCA and those able to operate at prison sites), and development of volunteer skill.
Volunteer numbers
As prison staff have increased their capacity to host group services, TTPCA has been
able to deliver more services, which is very exciting. In 2022-2023 only 6.8% of men
and women and prison could attend group services, while in 2023-2024 nearly 14% could attend group services. The pre-COVID norm was between 25 and 30% so there is still quite a way to go to reach normal group service delivery. The steady ‘return to normal’ in group service activity at most sites has been enthusiastically welcomed by both prisoners and prison staff. Prisoners report that their interaction with volunteers – ordinary people from the outside community, is immensely valuable and a highlight of their week.
This year, nearly 400 volunteers turned up regularly at sites and patiently navigated the complexities of being a prison volunteer – they completed paperwork, background checks and site inductions, travelled to
and from isolated sites, and coped with
the restrictions and disruptions that occur regularly in their time on-site. There are a further 250 in the system whose applications are being processed or are waiting to start their volunteering work.
Alongside the teams of general volunteers who support the group worship services,
in 2024 there were 19 volunteer assistant chaplains and 30 pastoral visitors. Assistant chaplains offered individual pastoral care, ran group services and filled in for chaplains when they were away, and pastoral visitors provided specialist one-on-one support to prisoners with distinct religious and spiritual needs.
Volunteer skill development
One of the ways we have strengthened our volunteer participation this year has been with a focus on volunteer training. The training events, throughout the country, have focused on how to run good group services and practice safely as a volunteer. So far, 514 volunteers have completed the new training package and 164 completed the training in 2024. Feedback about the training has been consistently good, along the lines of one volunteer who said that even though he has been volunteering for a long time he found the training really helpful and it had added new skills to his kete.