Local leaders show support for pioneering residential development for justice involved women that enables them to rebuild their lives.

Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight has visited the site for Hope Street in Southampton, a pioneering development that will provide an alternative for justice involved women and their children where they will be supported to rebuild their lives, including those serving a community sentence. Women will also be able to stay at Hope Street instead of being in custody prior to sentencing, or if they have nowhere safe to stay after a custodial sentence.

Commissioner Jones met Lady Edwina Grosvenor, Founder of One Small Thing, the charity behind the Hope Street development, at the site on 5 November 2021.

Research has shown that 82% of women currently being sent to prison in England and Wales have not committed serious or violent offences and they have often been victims themselves of life-long neglect, abuse and disadvantage. 60% of women receiving short custodial sentences are mothers: their children then end up in care and they lose their homes. After a short sentence, of only a few weeks, they are left with no family and no home, compounded by the trauma of prison and with little support to assist them in rebuilding their lives.

Hope Street is being established by One Small Thing to create an entirely new approach to working with justice involved women. In a healing, residential environment, women will be able to undertake their community service whilst being supported by a range of specialist services. By taking a positive, compassionate and trauma informed approach, the aim is to achieve better outcomes for women, their children and society.

Hope Street will provide:

• A safe, 24 hour staffed residential Hub, designed to create a trauma informed, trauma responsive environment for women and their children

• Individually tailored programmes designed to enable women to address a wide range of issues in their lives that have resulted in them becoming involved with the justice system

• 11 move-on supported Hope Houses for women leaving the Hub in preparation for return to their own home

• Ongoing outreach support for women and their families once they have returned to their own home

One Small Thing's Chief Executive Claire Hubberstey said: “We were delighted to host Donna Jones the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire in a visit to Hope Street. The pioneering residential community we are building in Southampton for women and their children will provide learning that will be significant as a blueprint at a national level. We are grateful for the strong level of support from local stakeholders in Hampshire for this project and are looking forward to working with them to ensure women and children affected by the justice system have a safe space to live and receive the support they need to rebuild their lives.”

See a video produced by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight about her visit here.

Photos by Jon Fletcher