We are pleased to award a £20,444 grant to Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) towards its distance learning courses for ex-Army prisoners. Providing education in this setting can help prisoners remain positive and enable them to contribute positively to society on their release.
Our charity funds a wide range of charities and organisations that provide education, training and learning opportunities to veterans. PET believes that prisoners’ lives are transformed through learning and provides them with the opportunity to study distance learning courses, enabling them to gain new skills and use their time in prison productively.
PET’s experience in this area shows that many ex-service prisoners, particularly those with mental health-related conditions, derive huge personal benefits from studying. Our donation will fund various courses for 38 ex-Army prisoners including GCSEs, A-levels and Open University studies. Our charity’s previous grant helped to fund distance learning courses for 43 veterans.
Ex-service veteran ‘Simon’ took AS-level history in prison last year, funded by PET. He wrote: “My distance learning course has enabled me to stay motivated and helped me progress throughout the pandemic and encouraged me to remain positive and look forward.”
Jon Collins, Chief Executive of PET, said:
“We are very grateful to ABF The Soldiers’ Charity for their support. Participating in education can be transformative and we look forward to using this funding to help more veterans in prison to use their time positively and to leave prison with the skills and qualifications that they need to turn their lives around.”
Brigadier (Ret’d) Peter Monteith, Chief of Staff at ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, added:
“Education and training support for veterans is an important area for our charity. This also applies to ex-service prisoners; and PET has an impressive, longstanding record in transforming lives through learning and study opportunities. We were pleased to donate the funds this year.”
Since it was founded in 1989, Prisoners’ Education Trust has provided over 45,000 educational awards to people in prison and uses its research and expertise to improve prison education. Read more here: https://www.prisonerseducation.org.uk/