A VOLUNTEER group at Styal Prison is looking for recruits from the community to help families come to terms with visiting their loved ones in prison.
HMP Styal Visitors Centre was set up three years ago following the deaths of six women at the prison.
The aim is to help families through what can often be a traumatic experience of visiting their wife, mother, daughter or sister in jail.
Currently, the visitors centre group has six volunteers but director Sandra Wells and manager Janet Heathcote have called for more people from the borough to get involved.
Sandra said: "It can be a very positive experience for volunteers because you are definitely making a difference to people's lives. I think our volunteers feel valued and at the end of the day when they have sat with the families whether it is comforting them or having a laugh with them they feel content that they have done a good day's work."
The centre is open from 12.30 to 4.30pm Tuesday to Sunday and volunteers are needed at all times during these opening hours.
When people come to visit their families in Styal, Sandra said their first port of call is now her volunteer group, where they can be sure of practical and emotional support.
"Our role is to support families and friends of visitors, providing practical and very often emotional support to visitors, particularly first time visitors which can be a very frightening experience."
Sandra's volunteers explain to newly arrived visitors what procedures to expect, talking them through checking in personal items and explaining what they can and cannot take into the prison.
They also explain the presence of the patrol dogs and guards and run a small refreshment bar with tokens for tea and cake and give one to one help where needed.
"It is all about taking the stigma away, we need families to feel comfortable. We talk to them about what prisoners can do while they are in prison as well, the opportunities for further education and employment.
"Quite often they think they are just sat in a cell, but there are lots of things going on." One of Sandra's main concerns at the visitors centre is to make the whole experience less traumatic for children and for that she says dedicated long term volunteers from the local area can make a huge difference.
"Children really are the innocent victims in all of this and often they can be bullied or suffer from a family break up and they often find the visiting experience quite frightening.
"But we have a lovely play area and what we have found works very well is having mature people with them. We have one lady who is 82 and a lot of the children see her as a grandma, so they warm to her very much."
Sandra said she welcomes volunteers of all ages and physical abilities subject to usual police CRB checks. For more information contact Sandra on 08700102569 or manager Janet Heathcote on 07977432002.
