With over 25000 visitors to HMP The Mount each year, including nearly 5000 children in 2017, the organisation and well running of the Tea Bar by the HACRO Organiser and the team of Volunteers remains essential to the ongoing work involved in running The Visitors’ Centre and the Tea Bar.
Our new Tea Bar Organiser, Michaela, has been working extremely hard tidying up the storage area and keeping volunteers informed about all aspects of The Visitors’ Centre business. She has also been helping to settle in new volunteers and to improve the running and organisation of the Tea Bar, including some new informative and colourful posters which are now on the walls of the Centre.
On15th December Michaela organised a ‘Jingle and Mingle’ get together for all of the Tea Bar volunteers. As you can see we all had a good time and received a box of biscuits as a thank you from HACRO.
Volunteers
HACRO continues to recruit new volunteers alongside HMP The Mount.
The HACRO recruitment programme is called Step Inside – for more details on applying to become a HACRO Volunteer click here and send us a message.
Recruitment takes a long time for obvious reasons as the prison vetting system has to be very thorough. With patience and a great deal of enthusiasm however, we have successfully recruited more volunteers this year who are now working in the Tea Bar.
We are always keen to hear from more volunteers for the Tea Bar as it is so much better if there are at least 2 people working together each day as it means we can give visitors more help and support.
The Family Services Competition Specification Bidding
It was great to hear the news late in 2017 that after the bidding procedure which prisons go through every few years was completed, PACT was the successful bidder working with HACRO and CDA who, together with The Mount, will continue to run all of the Visitor procedures and events.
Visiting Times
HMP The Mount has wanted to increase visiting hours for some time so that the offenders can see their families more often.
Important and valuable research has shown that people in prison are less likely to re-offend if they keep in touch with their families!
The Visiting Hours at The Mount are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons, Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons.
We need to ensure that with the continued help and support of our HACRO Volunteers, The Tea Bar will be open during all of these times.