Friends of the NWJC

Agenda Alliance exists to make a difference to the lives of women and girls who are at the sharpest end of inequality. We are an alliance of over 100 member organisations – from large, national bodies to smaller, specialist organisations – working in collaboration to influence public policy and practice to respond appropriately to women and girls with multiple, complex unmet needs

Appeal is a charity and law practice dedicated to challenging wrongful convictions and promoting a fairer justice system. Appeal supports individuals and their families who have experienced a miscarriage of justice and who cannot afford to pay for an appeal lawyer. They bring unsafe convictions and unfair sentences to the Court of Appeal and the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and campaign on wider issues to achieve reform of the criminal justice system. Appeal deploys expert knowledge to identify particular issues of concern, conduct research and publish our findings.

The Better Justice Partnership aims to increase government support for early intervention and diversion by building an alliance to advocate for evidence-based policymaking. The Partnership aims to improve public safety by tackling high re-offending rates and the disproportionate criminalisation of people facing multiple disadvantage and racial inequality. It also seeks to improve responses and support for young people before they get caught up in offending and when they first have contact with the justice system.

The Centre for Justice Innovation seeks to build a justice system which everyone believes is fair and effective and which focuses on solving the issues that drive crime and social harm. To deliver this vision, CJI provide hands on support to practitioners in the justice system to help them develop and share innovative and effective practice; conduct research into how things work right now and how they could work better; promote evidence-based, innovative justice policy reforms; and share lessons between the jurisdictions of the UK and its sister organisation in the US.

The Centre for Women’s Justice aims to help women and girls who are subject to male violence get better access to legal remedies to defend and enhance their rights. It does this by bringing together specialist lawyers, academics and other experts in the field of violence against women, with those working on the frontline as activists, survivors and service providers to bring strategic law challenges and ensure access to justice for victims of male violence. 

Changing Lives is a nationwide charity helping people facing the most challenging of circumstances make positive change – for good. Changing Lives believes that everyone deserves a safe home, a rewarding job and a life free from addiction or abuse, and that given the right support, anyone can change their life for the better. Changing Lives women’s provision includes dedicated gender specific accommodation; VAWG services for domestic abuse and sex work and sexual exploitation; and criminal justice early intervention, diversion schemes and commissioned rehabilitation services. Much of Changing Lives’ work is done in partnership with women’s organisations.

Clinks is the infrastructure organisation supporting voluntary organisations in the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Clinks supports, promotes and represents its members so that organisations and the people they support are informed and engaged in order to transform lives and communities. Clinks Women’s Network brings together members that focus on providing women-specific services. In partnership with Agenda Alliance, Clinks hosts quarterly women’s networking forums to gather intelligence to inform representative work with government and other stakeholders, including the MoJ’s Women and the Criminal Justice System Expert Group.

Founded in 2016, the Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance (GMWSA) brings together nine women’s centres, offering support services for all women across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

The Alliance is committed to funding and providing high-quality services to support, safeguard and empower all women, helping them take control of their lives. United by their common values, the GMWSA work together to share knowledge and experiences while representing the interests of the women they support – making sure that their collective voice is heard by policy makers and service commissioners. In doing so, the GMWSA fosters an approach to helping women that emphasises prevention over intervention.

Himaya Haven CIC is a grassroots non-profit and women led organisation that provides essential practical and emotional support to families with a loved one in custody and prison.

A significant proportion of those supported come from ethnic minority communities within Birmingham, who face isolation, disenfranchisement and barriers to accessing services. Himaya Haven’s mission is to provide a range of services to meet individuals’ and family members’ needs whilst they navigate the criminal justice system, offering holistic support, advice, guidance, information, coping therapies and access to mainstream services, alongside understanding the practicalities and procedures involved.

Pact is a pioneering national charity that supports prisoners, people with convictions, and their children and families. Pact provides caring and life changing services at every stage of the criminal justice process: in court, in prison, on release, and in the community. Pact currently operates in over 65 prisons across England and Wales, including all women’s prisons directly or via a subcontract with Nepacs in Low Newton and across all Probation areas.

Parents And Children Together (PACT) has a vision is to deliver high quality services to build and strengthen an increasing number of children and families by delivering community projects that provide quality services and successful outcomes for women and children in need of support. Since 2010, PACT runs Alana House, a women’s centre in the Thames Valley, which provides a safe, non-judgemental, female-only environment to enable women to identify and prioritise their needs, assess life circumstances, address barriers, develop new skills, and empower them to make positive changes and sustain outcomes.

The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) is an independent UK charity working to create a just, humane and effective prison system. PRT does this by influencing decision-makers, opinion formers and the public to reduce the use of prison, improve conditions for prisoners and promote equality and human rights in the criminal justice system. PRT has a long-standing focus on improving criminal justice outcomes for women, and continues to campaign for a reduction in women’s imprisonment.

Revolving Doors is a national charity championing long-term solutions for justice reform that tackle the root causes of repeat, low-level crime and support people’s journeys towards better lives. Through amplifying the voices of those who have experienced the criminal justice system, their mission is to prevent individuals from being criminalised due to unmet health and social needs, such as poverty, homelessness, mental ill health, problems with drugs and alcohol or domestic abuse.

Unlock is a national independent advocacy charity that supports, speaks up and campaigns for people facing stigma, prejudice and discrimination because of their criminal record. Unlock raises awareness of the systemic issues that people are facing, campaigns for changes to legislation, policies and practices of government, employers and others, and supports people with criminal records to navigate their way through challenging times.

User Voice exists to reduce the harm caused by crime and punishment and believes that the justice system can and should fundamentally change, so that people caught up in it can transform their lives, benefitting victims and increasing public safety. User Voice currently works alongside people with convictions in 40 different prisons and the community to support and enable them to play a meaningful role in creating a better justice system that works for all through groundbreaking research, unique Prison Councils and effectively influencing on improvements in both policy and practice.

Women in Prison is a national charity that delivers support for women affected by the Criminal Justice System in prisons, the community and through their women’s centres and hub spaces in London, Manchester and Surrey. Women in Prison also campaigns to end the harm caused to women, their families and communities by imprisonment.