Only Connect

June 2014

Only Connect is a crime prevention charity providing a positive community – including training, support and creative opportunities – for young people at risk, prisoners and ex-offenders. Their programmes deliver support at every point in the crime cycle in order to reduce offending.

Their key ethos is that they see the people they work with as assets, not liabilities in the community, with a contribution to make to their families, communities and wider society.

Through its creative arts programme, many ex-offenders and youth at risk have the opportunity to collaborate with creative professionals on specific projects to produce high-quality work inspired, produced and performed by them for public audiences.

Key to its success is its ‘member’s clubs’ where ex-offenders and youth at risk can drop in for educational lessons, training and employment advice.

Only Connect’s model works. Their programmes more than halves expected rates of re-offending, from an estimated 57.5% without the charity to 25.9% with the charity.