Loud Speaker, an organisation that provides confidence-boosting workshops to both young people and adults, has diversified its offering to now work with prisons across the UK with their inmates to reduce reoffending rates.
Directors Calvin Eden and Oba Akinwale have helped over 100,000 youths from across the county where they have worked with schools, sixth forms, colleges, universities and other establishments to empower young people and provide key tools for them to use as they make key life decisions.
Focusing on skills including public speaking, job interviews, being confident to speak on stage, as well as speaking up and speaking their best, Loud Speaker provides the workshops and delivers them in a way that their target audience can understand and embrace.
For 2023, Loud Speaker is broadening its offering further to work with prisoners across the UK, contributing to reducing reoffending rates by giving them the tools to gain employment and access enterprise upon their release back into society.
Running a pilot at a prison in Wales, Loud Speaker is working hard behind the scenes to roll the initiative out nationally to work with prisons in Liverpool, across the North West and beyond.
Following the pilot workshop, the prisoners showed a real transformation from the start of the session to the end. Instilling confidence in the prisoners, and giving them the key tools to communicate in various settings, Loud Speaker found it incredible to watch the prisoners taking part in the workshop and see them at the beginning of the session, quiet and perhaps nervous to speak confidently.
In contrast, by the end of the session, they were speaking in front of everyone in a well-spoken and self-assured manner.
With Loud Speaker’s goal being to help prisoners with their confidence building, public speaking and personal storytelling to bring down reoffending rates.
Loud Speaker director Calvin Eden said:
“Working with a prison for the first time was an eye opening and insightful experience for myself and the team. We were able to see firsthand the key sticking points for prisoners and encourage them to open up, giving them confidence to become storytellers and work on their public speaking skills.”
Loud Speaker director Oba Akinwale added:
“After the success of this pilot, we have a focus on rolling this out to other prisons including locally in Liverpool, and further afield across the UK like we’ve done with our confidence boosting workshops for young people. We’d love to help as many people as possible, providing the necessary tools to make an impact on reoffending rates to bring these down across the country. Our main goal is to instil a positive mindset and provide them with the tools they need to go on to live meaningful lives outside of prison, rather than heading back there at a later date.”
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