Having a parent in prison can impact a child’s life in many ways, from their education and mental health to the stigma that often comes with incarceration. The Bridge Family Project is here to support families by creating opportunities for meaningful family time, running dedicated family days, and offering adult education to help strengthen relationships and build brighter futures together.
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Bridge Family Project
Formally known as the HMP Hewell Rainbow Project, this project provides parenting programmes for inmates of HMP Hewell and offers a range of parenting courses designed to improve the parent child relationship and to support children with parents in prison.
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History of Bridge Family Project
20+ Years Ago
The journey at HMP Hewell began with dedicated ‘Mothers’ Union’ volunteers working in the Category B visits play area at the prison.
2006
YMCA Worcestershire secured 4 years of funding from ‘Children in Need’, with part of the funding also coming directly from the prison for the Visitor’s Centre, play area, and main visits.
2008
With the merging of 3 prisons (Categories B/C/D), the project expanded to cover 4 play areas across all sites, with work being developed and shared throughout.
2009
The project was honoured with its first Butler Trust Award, a national recognition for its innovative work with prisoners and their families—at a time when family support was not a top priority in most prisons.
2012
The project received Big Lottery (BL) funding via YMCA Worcestershire for the next 3 years, allowing further development of the work within the prison and the opportunity to reach out to the families of the men in care.
2016
The Hewell Rainbow Project (HRP) was officially born, with a second round of BL funding awarded for 3 more years. The project continued to be managed in partnership with YMCA Worcestershire and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).
2017
The government commissioned Lord Michael Farmer to review the importance of strengthening prisoners’ family ties in reducing reoffending, leading to Barnardo’s joining the project at HMP Hewell to support families.
2020
A third round of BL funding was awarded to HRP for Phase 2, ‘Rainbow in the Cloud’. Due to the pandemic and furlough restrictions, the start date was delayed to August 2020.
2022
Barnardo’s exited the project, and PACT (Prison Advice and Care Trust) took over, providing ongoing support in the Visitor’s Centre.
2023
HRP received its second Butler Trust Award, a prestigious national recognition, for its work with prisoners and families—nominated by a prisoner and awarded by the Princess Royal at St. James’ Palace.
Aug 2023
The second round of BL funding ended, and the team, once 8 strong—including play workers and course tutors—was reduced to 2. With ongoing efforts to secure smaller pockets of funding and match funding from HMP Hewell.
July - 2025
The HMP Hewell Rainbow Project was renamed the Bridge Family Project to better reflect its mission of bridging the gap between families and their imprisoned loved ones, and to signal a fresh, exciting chapter in its future.
Nov 2025
Won Family & Youth Project of the Year at the YMCA Youth Matters Awards, recognising our life-changing impact on prisoners and their families.
What we do at Bridge Family Project @ HMP Hewell
Hidden Sentence training is FREE
for any employees or volunteers whose work brings them into contact with families of prisoners, including health professionals, school staff, child care providers, social workers, youth workers, play workers, local authority staff or community/voluntary workers.
Participants enjoy an informative and interactive training day to discover the true impact of imprisonment on families, which often remains Hidden. Hidden Sentence training supports professionals to understand the often unseen impact of imprisonment on children and families. By increasing awareness, knowledge and confidence, our interactive training day enables agencies to respond more effectively, prioritise children’s needs, and work collaboratively to reduce harm and improve outcomes.
Contact Charlotte Smith (Family Support Facilitator) at charlotte.smith@ymcaworcestershire.org.uk for more information or to book your FREE place.
Courses are run by an in-house team
that aim to develop the understanding of what it means to be a dad and to support families in maintaining a bond between parent and child.
Family days aim to create some ‘normality’ for the children and enable them to have quality time with their parents.
In addition to a normal visit family days enable the children to visit their father in a relaxed and enjoyable event. There will be an area for the child to play with toys and a play worker that supports the children playing.
We welcome volunteers from all faiths and backgrounds to assist with our Bridge Family Days. Why not explore YMCA Volunteering opportunities and see if you can spare a few hours.
Story book dads enable parents in prison to send a story to their children either by audio recording on a CD or a DVD.
This enables them to hear a story from their parents without them being there; this could be a bedtime message and their favourite story and offers a comfort for the children.
Prisoners can take part in our Creative Club
where they can make various crafts for themselves and their families. This enables the fathers to create personalised gifts that can be sent to the child, ensuring they never miss a birthday, religious event or important occasion.
Grant Support
The Bridge Family Project has been made possible thanks to a 3 year grant from Benefact Trust.
Contacts
For further information or dates for FREE Hidden Sentence Training, or general enquiries about the project, please contact
Family Support Lead – Helen Smith
If you’re interested in Volunteering at the Bridge Family Project, contact
Family Support & Volunteer Co-ordinator – Karen Cullum
Success Stories
YMCA Stories
YMCA Worcestershire
Family Support – Bridge Family Day
YMCA Stories
YMCA Worcestershire
Family Support – Easter comes to HMP Hewell.
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See what else we do to serve young people and communities in Worcestershire.
