CUP – Convicts Upskilling Pathways Erasmus Project

Project Title

CUP – Convicts Upskilling Pathways

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Access for disadvantaged; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The concepts of ‘prison’ and ‘work’, framed in the broader notion of employability, play an important role in imagining and designing more inclusive societies.
European prison population currently amounts to almost half a million male prisoners and around 30.000 female prisoners, most of which come from disadvantaged backgrounds (disrupted families, migrant origin, extreme poverty, unemployment, weak social networks) and have experienced troubled educational paths. The re-offending European average is 75%.
Involved Countries (Italy, Greece, Cyprus and the Netherlands) experience some differences (e.g. number of prison population, availability of educational programmes, reoffending rates) but share some common challenges and experiences:
– Social and educational disadvantage of prison population
– Weak measures to ease ex-convicts’ transition back to civilian life (in particular in CY, IT, GR)
– A lack of alignment between internal inmates working experience and external working careers
– A lack of comprehensive strategies fostering employability for convicts/ex-convicts
– Lack of specific tools to advocate for the relevance of policies promoting education, employability and support for social reintegration of convicts
– Lack of evaluation tools to assess the usefulness and impact of education policies showing for the overall society
– Ongoing successful piloting experiences that provide employment guidance and training opportunities to convicts
– A need for a continuous update for practitioners working directly with convicts to promote their social re-integration.
CUP partnership is made by a mix of various organizations (Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, 6 prison administrations –1 in IT; 1 in NL; 1 in CY as full partners and 3 GR institution as associated partners through MINISTRY OF JUSTICE -GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF CRIME AND PENITENTIARY POLICY; a third sector organization (Casa di Carità), NGO (Human Rights360) a public organization (EPANODOS) and a Sme (TIRANTES) working on training opportunities for convicts; the European University of Cyprus, school of Humanities Social and Education Sciences; Fondazione Zancan, expert in evaluation practices) and external partners (Bureau Nazorg Dutch local authority for ex-convicts reintegration and Estabelecimento Prisional de Leiria Prison in Portugal).

CUP has a threefold aim:
1. to design successful training modules (e.g. modules based on technical skills as a mean of embedded learning for soft and basic skills) aimed at enhancing convicts/ex convicts potential for medium-long term employability. Specific focus will be devoted to soft skills, identified by employers as a core selection criteria when hiring. The strong involvement of administrators and practitioners working with prison population will be key to allow for short term and long term impact.
2. CUP will promote an overall culture of evaluation: since not all countries can rely on strong tools to understand the true impact of the programmes designed to promote convicts/ex-convicts employability and social reintegration, CUP aims at offering an evaluation kit (easy-to-use, scalar) that prison administration and third sector organizations can use to measure the progress and the impact of actions promoting primary target employability. The design of the evaluation tool will allow replicability of its main features beyond the partnership borders.
3. given the relevance of various concepts such as: education in prison, employability training, evidence based policy design, evaluation in prison contexts, the need to counteract stigma that contribute in creating an hostile environment for social reintegration of convicts, CUP partnership is committed to develop a “Call to Action strategy” targeting policy makers and stakeholders to advocate for such concepts.

Two are the main target groups of CUP project:

PRIMARY TARGET (male, female, young convicts and ex-convicts close to end sentence or on alternative measures):
WOMEN: up to 70 (up to 40 coming from Turin Prison in Italy and 30 coming from Eleonas (Thiva) Prison in Greece
MEN: around 120 convicts/ex convicts aged 18 to 55 (20 in NL coming from PI Vught +40 in CY coming from Nicosia Prison +60 in GR coming from Chalkida Prison)
YOUNGSTERS: 20 young adults up to 18 years old coming from Avlonas Prison in Greece

SECONDARY TARGET:
A broad range of social professionals (i.e. educators, service managers, case managers) working to provide training for convicts/exconvicts and facilitate their work and social reintegration into society. CUP will directly involve around 10 prison practitioners from each Country and expects to involve indirectly around 20 more practitioners per Country.

Project Website

https://www.cup-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 449616 Eur

Project Coordinator

COMPAGNIA DI SAN PAOLO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• HumanRights360 Civil non profit civil partnership
• MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND PUBLIC ORDER
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY CYPRUS
• Casa Circondariale Lorusso e Cutugno Torino
• FONDAZIONE EMANUELA ZANCAN ONLUS CENTRO STUDI E RICERCA SOCIALE
• PI Vught
• FONDAZIONE CASA DI CARITA ARTI E MESTIERI ONLUS