Switchback
Supporting young prison-leavers to make real, lasting change
Switchback supports young men aged 18 to 30 who are leaving prison and returning to London, helping them find a way out of the justice system for good. What sets it apart is the relationship: one skilled, paid Switchback Mentor who starts working with a Trainee inside prison and stays alongside him for as long as it takes.
Mentor and Trainee meet regularly in the final months before release, and the same Mentor is there on the day he walks out. From then on, real work training runs alongside daily one-to-one support, building stability across every part of life, from housing to health, before he moves into lasting work or training.
Switchback aims higher than staying out of prison or starting a job. It calls this Real, Lasting Change: a fundamental shift in mindset and lifestyle. Trainees build the confidence, routine and skills for a stable, rewarding life they can be proud of, and the door is always open if they need to come back.
2015
Year they joined the Raise Your Hands platform
74
Children and Young People supported last year
Why they’re needed
Leaving prison is one of the hardest moments in a young man’s life. Many of the young men Switchback works with leave prison facing homelessness. Many have never had the chance to work legitimately, and many grew up in poverty or care, often experiencing violence and trauma along the way.
Support after release is often fragmented, split across housing, health, welfare and probation services that don’t always join up. Without someone consistent in their corner, too many young people end up back in custody, sometimes within weeks, before they’ve had a real chance to build something different.
Switchback starts from a different belief: it is often not a lack of opportunity holding prison-leavers back, but a lack of confidence, knowledge and steady support. Changing your life after prison takes real courage and determination. With the right relationship and a genuine chance to prove themselves, young men show they have both.
How they do it
Switchback Mentors meet eligible young men regularly during their last three months inside, getting to know them and making a practical and emotional plan for release together. Where meeting in prison isn’t possible, support can start straight after release instead.
On release day, the same Mentor meets the Trainee. He then begins up to 12 weeks of real work training, two days a week, with partners such as The Dusty Knuckle Bakery, a social enterprise bakery and café in London. Learning on the job, with his Mentor close at hand, builds skills, routine and resilience in a safe space to make mistakes.
Mentors are full-time, paid and highly skilled, with small caseloads so they can be in touch every day. Each week includes an Action Planning session, and progress is tracked across ten Switchback Pathways, from housing to health. When the time is right, Trainees move into sustainable work or further training, with in-work support to help the change last.
Switchback also shares what it has learned, training practitioners alongside its Experts by Experience and campaigning for a better approach to life after prison.
Find out more about Switchback’s amazing work
Kam’s Story
Kam met Switchback while he was still in prison, with no plan for his release. “I didn’t have any other support from any organisations so I thought why not give it a go,” he says. Together with his Mentor, he built a plan, and after release he joined the programme, training in a café kitchen.
Kam stayed connected through Switchback’s Experts by Experience meetings while he gained a personal training qualification and worked as a labourer. When he asked about jobs at Switchback, he completed an internship and was offered a role as a Junior Mentor. He went on to mentor other young men for three years and helped create an award-winning podcast.
He then moved on to a role at a London council, supporting people facing multiple disadvantages. Looking back, he knows the change came from both sides: “It’s a two way street, you have to want the change.”
Support Switchback along with 15 other charities for children and young people
Switchback is one of a portfolio of small UK charities for children and young people championed by Raise Your Hands. When you donate to us, your gift is shared equally between every charity in the portfolio.
One donation. 16 small charities. 16 ways to change a young life.
