Offering hope to prisoners this Christmas and all year round... 

 

Christmas comes early here at Sixty-One! September saw the arrival of a Christmas tree in the Sixty-One office (more on that to come!) and presents are filling up our storage facility ready to be packed for delivery to the prisons at the end of December. 

Christmas Gift Project

Every year, with the support of local churches, Sixty-One co-ordinates a Christmas Gift Project. A bag of thoughtful gifts and a hand-written Christmas card are given to over 1,400 serving prisoners in three local prisons. We also offer people a copy of a Christian booklet. At a time when self-harming and suicide rates are high, this act of unconditional kindness has a huge impact.

"I’m very grateful for the support of Sixty-one and the Christmas Gift Project, Christmas in prison can be a difficult time, your kind support can make a genuine difference to our prisoners normalising the festive season. Thank you, best wishes Vanessa." Governor at HMP Bristol

The Gift Project also gives us the opportunity to make serving prisoners aware of the support that we can provide on their release through our mentoring programme, MentorMe. 

“It's nice that we are thought about at this time of year, being away from our loved ones. It's my first Christmas away from my family and and my first year in prison, so please can you pass on my thanks to everybody who was involved in the Christmas Gift Project." - Letter received from a serving prisoner