A Clearer Future: PHF visits with a Grantee Organisation Training Prisoners in Optometry.
It was six years ago, during prison visits to a family member, that Tanjit Dosanjh become aware of the dearth of meaningful training available to offenders. As a professional optometrist he saw an opportunity: to train inmates in the production of optical lenses, giving them key employability skills in preparation for release. The result is Pen Optical Trust which, with support from PHF, has just completed its first year operating its optical training lab in the community. Over the course of 16 weeks, trainees who are nearing the end of their prison sentences are released on temporary licence to the lab for training in basic optics and glazing of spectacles. The training culminates in trainees sitting exams for the Level 2 for Optical Customer Service, a qualification which would enable them to get employment with opticians.
Dosanjh’s vision of establishing a training lab in the community has been some years in the making. It builds on a pilot project he ran in HMP Standford Hill from 2012 to 2014, which trained offenders to make optical prescriptions for inmates in HMP Lincoln. Bringing the lab into the community prepares prisoners for the transition to life on the outside and gives them key employability skills within a workplace environment. Research indicates that employment post release reduces reoffending rates significantly. This was one of the key reasons why PHF were interested in supporting the work. We also recognised the unique offer of the project and the impressive commitment of Dosanjh who had pursued this venture largely unpaid and in his own time. PHF’s engagement with the project came at a fairly early stage of development when many aspects of how the community lab would operate were still to be finalised. Dosanjh, who as an optometrist had no previous experience in charity management, had to work through the establishment of the charity and its governance. Through PHF’s input, which included consultancy support and grant funding, Pen Optical is now a registered charity with a board of trustees and a gradually growing staff team. It has also developed a potentially sustainable funding model by tendering for sub-contracts to deliver eye care to prison inmates. By winning contracts, they have been able to recruit opticians to deliver statutory optical care in prisons, allowing the charity to help fund the training programme.
Crucially, it has just finished working with its first cohort of trainees, with positive results. Of the six trainees who started the course in September, three have secured Optical Assistant jobs with opticians, another will start working for a local charity supporting ex-offenders and one will work with Pen Optical to mentor subsequent trainees. The final year of PHF grant funding will enable Pen Optical to consolidate what it has learnt in its first official year of operation. It will work with a further two cohorts of trainees over the year, continuing to learn how best to train and support groups with diverse needs. It will strengthen both its relationships with local prisons but also with opticians as potential employers. Finally, it will continue to build a strong and sustainable organisation from which it can work with many more ex-offenders keen to make a positive transition back to life on the outside.
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