Young Adults

66% of young people released from prison reoffend within a year. They can find it particularly difficult to move away from negative influences and behaviours causing them to rely on the very behaviours that led to their conviction. The Footprints Project works to support young people at risk of entering or in the Criminal Justice System. We use role models with lived-experience to deliver impactful mentoring, facilitate lived-experience talks to and from young people and encourage community groups and purposeful use of time. At the heart of our approach, we build trust, encourage community engagement and improve self-belief. 

In 2026, we were one of 8 national charities to receive funding from the Co-op Future Community Fund, which supports young people with experience of the Criminal Justice System to re-engage with their communities. We are grateful for this opportunity to expand our youth work to support more young people across Hampshire and Dorset.  

Mentoring

The Footprint Project puts people with lived-experience at the heart of our development and delivery of projects. The majority of our frontline staff, mentors and volunteers (50-75%) have lived-experience of the Criminal Justice System. They act as role models towards the young people, encouraging them to talk about their fears and dreams. Together they co-develop a plan for the way forward that is practical, achievable and shaped by the young person’s specific problems and ambitions. At the core, our mentors build self-belief, resilience and the certainty that they are ‘worth it’.

For many service users who no longer need or want our support, they look to paying it forward and request to volunteer with us We facilitate this, as much as possible, they can mentor and support people in the same situation they were, acting as the role models that are the heart of our approach to young people with experience of the Criminal Justice System. We also directly employ former service users whenever possible so they can continue to shape and be a part of the projects that supported them.

Lived-Experience

We encourage young people to tell their stories to the public. They’ll talk about the reasons they were drawn into crime, their journey in and out of prison and the difficulties facing them when changing their lives. We offer them opportunities to record, write or talk to the public directly at events. Through these opportunities, they can receive support from the public, building their sense of belonging and reducing their isolation within their community.

Stuart, Prison and Youth Coordinator, organises, runs and delivers lived-experience talks to young people at risk of entering or in the Criminal Justice System. He will utilise mentors, volunteers and service users wanting to participate and share their experiences to create an impactful and motivational talk for young people.

Additionally, the Footprint Project is working with the Creative Future Opportunities (CFO) Evolution, a tailored support for people in the Criminal Justice System, run by the HM Prison & Probation Service. We deliver life-experience talks to young people in the CFO Wing at HMP & YOI Portland. These talks are delivered to groups of 12 young people at a time and aim to motivate, share experiences and provide information on services and support that they can access upon release.

Community Groups

A key factor to break the cycle of crime is self-identity and community engagement. We encourage young people to engage in community groups, such as hobbies and sports. These groups give the young people purposeful use of their time, space to engage with other members of a shared community and the groundwork to build a new self-label.

We hold local groups where young people can meet staff, volunteers, board members and others who are engaged in Footprints’ services. Here they can meet, support and learn from each other in a space and with people they trust. We also hold targeted focus groups for different communities in contact with the Criminal Justice System, including young people, women and those residing in Approved Premises. In these groups, young people are given the space and respect to improve projects, develop ideas and design future projects that will continue to support their community, helping them to see the actual, positive impact they can have.