Our mission for YIP:
“Every child deserves a second chance”
Main goal:
- To enable youth in conflict with the law to contribute positively to the society. Sub-goals:
- To develop and put in place effective programs for reintegrating young people in conflict with the law.
- Through advocacy and lobbying, to create positive attention among governments, social institutions and the direct acquaintances of (former) detainees for young people in conflict with the law.
Target group:
Young in Prison has three target groups which are the offenders still in prison, the Community, and Policy makers.
1) The individual (reintegration program)
We work with offenders, sentenced offenders (male and female), awaiting trial youths or released individuals. We use the creative arts activities to instil life skills in the participants while working towards improving their psycho-social wellbeing. We target them with the development and implementation of qualitative and effective programs during their time in prison and after their release in order to promote creativity, personal development and successful re-integration.
2) The community (reintegration program/advocacy and lobbying)
This involves community members such as family members of the young offenders and people from neighbor hoods from which the offenders originate, school children, employers and potential employers, local and national media and community based organizations (CBO’s). The community members are selected based on closeness to the juvenile offenders. Schools are selected based on location in areas where stigma is prevalent. The targeted media will be selected based on popularity in the townships and with other community members where stigma is omnipresent. We target them by means of creative activities, like art exhibitions, to strive for necessary and sustainable change in order to eliminate the stigma placed upon young people in and out of prison.
3) The policy makers (Advocacy and lobbying)
This involves local and national government, the judiciary, the parliamentarians and prison staff. Locally, this involves officer in charge of the institutions and ward councilors that deal with social development of the townships. On a national level, this involves among other things a campaign to make the public aware of the plight of offenders by involving (social) media, but also through sessions with members of parliament that sit in the relevant committees. We create platforms on which the policy makers and young offenders go into dialogue with the aim of improving some policies that deprive of children’s rights.
Our approach and how we work:
In everything we do with our target group, we follow the positive approach. We believe in the potential of every offender regardless of the gravity of crime they have committed. If given a chance they can still become good citizens. This belief in people make them feel that they are treated as human beings and special.
Young in Prison aims at investing as much of its means into giving offenders a new chance and a brighter perspective in life. We work with different organizations who all believe that creativity foster self-development. We are using creativity as means to develop life skills in order to support offenders in their efforts to reintegrate into society. Such activities include for example, drama, music, dance and visual arts through which the workshop participants are given an opportunity to process and express how they feel. Tools such as figurative maps, in which the places or incidents which led to their trouble with the law are drawn, enabling participants to chart their journeys.
Recently, Music Crossroads Malawi through the YIP project has established the YIPMade Vocational Skills Training Centre where the beneficiaries train in Welding and Fabrication; Fashion, Design and Tailoring; Arts and Craft; ICT and Entrepreneurship.
