The document discusses recommendations for improving the work of The Safer Living Foundation, which supports sexual offenders reintegrating into the community. It recommends: 1) recruiting more volunteers by utilizing volunteer recruitment websites and databases; 2) providing volunteers with effective training, including exchanging experiences with similar charities; and 3) developing a public information leaflet to help change negative perceptions of sexual offenders by providing factual information and explaining the charity's work. This is intended to improve volunteer support and increase public understanding of and support for the foundation's efforts.

1. The Safer Living
Foundation: Helping
sexual offenders
back into the
community
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S.
and Wheeler, L.

2. “Given the current socio-political climate this public
emphasis on accountability may be viewed, not as
counterproductive to the restorative roots of the
program but as an adaptive strategy that allows the
[CoSA] initiative to survive” (Hannem 2011).
Core member: sexual
offender who is being
supported back into society
4-7 volunteers: altruistic
members of public who
wish to assist offender
Circle coordinator:
professional with
experience in the field
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

3. Vulnerable Sex Offenders
 Vulnerable sex offenders include the elderly and intellectually
disabled.
 Factors that play a part in reoffending include:
Lack of relationship skills
Poor impulse control
Sexual naivety
Substance abuse
Unemployment
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

4.  Addressing these factors and incorporating them
with treatments could prove beneficial
 Elderly tend to get treated different to other sex
offenders in prison
 Elderly have less time to seek forgiveness from
family and society
Vulnerable Sex Offenders
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

5. Recommendations
I. Recruiting more volunteers
II. Rachel?? Treatment types
III. Exchanging Experiences: Best practice
IV. Changing the Public’s Perception
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

6. Volunteers
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

7. Volunteers
 Being part of a Circle is a big commitment.
“Initially volunteered to aid their own
career prospects”
“desire to work with sex offenders”
“many changed their views having
completed a Circle”
(Karstedt, Thomas, Thompson, 2014).
“It sounded like it
was doing some
good, getting some
positive results,
their reoffending
rate was low
compared to the
norm”.
 The weakness of the volunteer is that they might miss things
that a professional would recognise.
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

8. Recruiting more Volunteers
www.charityjob.co.uk/Volunteer-Jobs
www.volunteering.org.uk
www.do-it.org.uk
• These website allows Charities to upload vacancies for
volunteers.
• By doing this it will make the charity become more visible to
people who may not of heard of ‘The Circles of Trust’.
http://www.reachskills.org.uk
• This website allows Charities to search for volunteers
themselves.
• This can be more beneficial for the charity as they can view
specific volunteers in which would be suitable for the role.

9. Effective
Volunteers
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

10. Ensuring the Full Potential of a
Volunteer
Roles and responsibility:
Good
Characteristics
Professionalism
Confidentiality
Risk
Awareness
Maintaining a
professional relationship
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

11. The slippery slope workshop
 The Slippery Slope workshops are for those people who
are on the 'Slippery Slope', and have either committed a
sexual offence, are at risk of sexual offending, or re-
offending. The group is run by the session leader with the
help of the volunteers, who uses a psychotherapeutic
method called Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP).
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

12. Format of the session
The Format of the Slippery Slope Closed Group:
Participants will attend for five individual days over a
12 month period, and each participant will have some
structures (client sessions). Participants learn from their
own structures, from playing roles for each other, and
from witnessing other people's structures. Volunteers
will be invited to join the group to ensure there are
enough people to play the roles. There will be both men
and women in the group. whilst most of the time will be
spent doing structures (the deeper personal work that
looks at the underlying issues that contribute to an
individual's current behaviours), we will also spend two
mornings looking at a more cognitive approach to
managing inappropriate behaviour.
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

13. Exchanging experiences:
Best Practice
Recommendation: The Safer Living Foundation
volunteers experience the best practice of another
charity of similar work
 Nacro, Unlock as well as the other circles of support in different
areas of the country may be useful.
 It may greatly improve the volunteers experience and efficiency
if they were to gain some of the experiences and training from
these other charities volunteers.
 This is based on research showing the importance of social
learning theory, observational learning and peer learning.
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

14. Public Perception of
Sexual Offenders
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

15. Changing the Public’s
Perception
Recommended:
Leaflet to public > providing explanations > allowing better
understanding > alter perceptions
Based on and adopted from:
Current leaflet > Help us reduce sexual re-offending
Sex
Offenders
Negative
Associations
Media
Lack of Public
Understanding
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

16. Provide the public with
knowledge:Positives:
 High levels of sexual offenders imprisoned
 Recidivism rates are low
Negatives:
 Imprisonment rates are high. However, support levels
after imprisonment are low.
 Imprisonment high due to more sexual offending?
Need for public support and volunteering:
 Publicise the importance of the charity, and explain the
statistics may not be reliable. Sexual offending is still a
prominent issue in society.
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.

17. More
Volunteers
Effective
Training
Exchanging
Experiences
Changing
Perceptions
Bello, R., Easie, J., Everall, A., Fothergill, H., Ludlow, E., Ward, S. and Wheeler, L.