Mari attended the Prisoner Funder Forum Meeting run by The Hardman Trust.

Startup Trustees met with Edward Garnier MP to discuss new thinking on tackling recidivism.

We are very honoured to have been nominated for a number of recent awards including The Lord Longford Prize and the Wessex Charity Awards.

Mari was thrilled to accept an award from Support Action Net on the 5th November 2008, when her work developing Startup’s mentoring network was particularly commended.

The SupportActionNet Awards – recognising outstanding support services for vulnerable people that enhance quality of life by generating optimism, achievement, hope, freedom and fun – attracted 117 entries from around the UK. Practitioners and a panel of expert judges voted for the best entries online. Winners were announced at the SupportActionNet Conference on 5 November in London.

Southdown Housing Association won the overall award and £5,000 for their punk band Heavy Load where two of the five musicians are service users with learning disabilities. The band started a ‘stay-up-late’ campaign to challenge the practice where a lot of service users have a 9pm curfew due to inflexible staff rotas, meaning people with learning disabilities were missing out on a full social life and not able to enjoy gigs, meet their friends, or go to the theatre.

Startuponline was a runner-up for the Awards winning £2,000.  Judges commented:

• “A very good service for those who want to take the step to achieving their own and having their own.”
• “An innovative and excellent approach to challenging and helping prisoners to have, and achieve, higher aspirations. I am particularly impressed by the mentoring angle.”
• “A great opportunity, would be so keen to see this extended to other Prisons so that more ex-offenders had the opportunity to realise true employment opportunities on release. WELL DONE”
• “Gives prisoners a reason to go straight and take their futures seriously.”

SupportActionNet Project Director Gerard Lemos says, “We were delighted by the scope and ambition of this year’s entries; it’s extremely heartening to hear about so many examples of such good work with a focus on fulfilling the social and emotional aspirations of vulnerable people.”

Startup attended the Haymarket Third Sector Conference at the Belfry Hotel, Oxford.