The Foundation gave £10,000 in November 2017 for the purchase and renovation of a studio space in Battersea to create a proper textile production workshop as well as meeting and mentoring rooms for the ex-offenders that the charity had trained and worked with in prison.
Each year, around 500 prisoners in 32 prisons around the UK can volunteer to learn high quality, skilled, creative needlework. The new studio space provides employment, training, security and support to vulnerable ex-offenders upon their release from prison. The standard of the products, which include cushions, bags and napkins, is exceptionally high and many are designed in partnership with leading designers and sold online and at shopping events. Fine Cell Work now has the largest workforce of hand-stitchers anywhere in Europe and last year, nearly 5,000 products were made in prisons across the UK.
