Our community work is as busy as ever

Whilst our training restaurants, kitchens, café and gardens are temporarily closed we are continuing to support over 100 clients weekly. Their needs vary across the estate and our team of fulltime support workers are doing everything they can to prevent any crisis. They are dealing with issues such as accommodation support, drug/alcohol relapses and recovery, mental health issues, debt management and employment guidance.

The COVID-19 Clink Graduate Emergency Support Fund we set up in April remains a lifeline for our clients. We have been using these funds to support our graduates by paying for:

  • Supermarket vouchers
  • Accommodation
  • Clothing, for those leaving prison with no belongings
  • Mobile phones, for those leaving prison with no means of communication. This ensures that clients always have access to their support workers as well as other mandatory organisations such as probation, housing and benefits. Many of these appointments are now virtual or on the phone.
  • Training resources: we have assisted 2 clients in online courses enabling them to seek alternative employment outside of hospitality
  • Workwear, for some clients who required suitable safety wear for working in construction
  • Bicycle, for a client who has been walking in excess of 20 miles a day to support his grandmother.
  • Identification: some have nothing when leaving prison so we have helped get replacement driving licences and passports to aid the opening of bank accounts, beginning employment etc.

Donating to the COVID-19 Clink Graduate Emergency Support Fund 

If you’d like to support The Clink, you can donate via here through Just Giving or Virgin Money Giving. We’ll continue to share the success stories from Clink Graduates we can support with your help.

Serving up for staff at HMP Brixton using ingredients from HMP Send Clink Gardens

Staff at HMP Brixton have been able to ‘Clink & Collect’ for the last few weeks after The Clink re-opened their kitchens to sell takeaway staff meals under our new Clink & Collect service. Supported by 6 of our students in training, Simon our Brixton general manager with Tim our Head Chef Trainer has been busy creating staff favourites doing a roaring trade in ready meals and take-home-and-heat meals to save cooking at the end of a busy day.

HMP Send Clink Gardens are producing the goods

An amazing crop of fresh seasonal vegetables has sprouted in our Clink Garden in HMP Send and together with some very busy hens laying eggs, our Head Gardner, Steve has been preparing boxes of produce for The Clink Brixton to support Clink & Collect. Our CEO Chris is delivering one day a week ensure everything reaches Brixton in peak freshness, ready to be turned into delicious meals.

Keeping in touch with Clink Graduates

Contact during this time has been very important for many of our learners. We’ve been able to keep in touch with learners via the Email A Prisoner scheme which has been working well, helping us keep channels of communications open.

Your Clink Vouchers

We’ve extended all Clink gift vouchers in circulation until 31st December 2020. Any new vouchers ordered will be issued with a 12 validity date, rather than our usual 6 months. The extensions will help all our customers enjoy their vouchers once we re-open.

Would you like to use your vouchers on The Clink online shop?
If you’d like to use your vouchers against purchases via the online shop, you can follow the simple steps below to purchase Clink items. We are unable to redeem paper vouchers online so we have created a simple process for customers to follow:

  1. Visit our online shop here and decide what you would like to purchase using the value of your vouchers
  2. Email us the details of the purchases you would like to make  to marketing@theclinkcharity.org with the details of your order, number of vouchers and their value
  3. We will confirm the items are in stock and request your paper vouchers are sent to us to release the order
  4. Once received, we will despatch your order within 72 hours

We will be unable to give credit or change for your vouchers. Please ensure your total is as close to the value of your order and don’t forget to include postage in your total.

Thank you 

We would like to thank you for supporting The Clink Charity and its work – your generosity means we can continue to change attitudes, transform lives and importantly ensure those second chances are there now and in the future. Thank you.
The Clink Charity Team

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