27th September 2023
Festival “Towards a sustainable healthy prison”
Runforever organised a festival event on the 27th of September 2023 to celebrate the first eight months of the running club at HMP Grampian and open conversation “Towards a sustainable healthy prison”. The event included a 5k run followed by a party held at the Media Unit of the prison where runners, invited guests (from RGU), members of prison staff and of organisations helping with the project (IFF, Shmu, Familiesoutside) gathered for sharing about the running club and participate to the photovoice exhibition.
So far around 70 prisoners have been involved, along with 10 prison staff, 3 partner organisations (IFF, Shmu, Familiesoutside), Fife College and RGU – Robert Gordon University. Runforever delivered 68 running sessions from February to September 2023, and organised several fun runs and 5K races both inside and outside the prison improving the lives of all runners.
We aimed at combining conventional forms of evaluation with other ways of valuing the process from the inside. Inspired by the notion of warm data by Nora Bateson, Runningstories and Photovoice are ways for inventing value in the learning and setting up a path into an unknown territory where values emerge on the way and are co-shaped by organisations, institutions and people.
Read more about the festival and results from the first months of the Running club
September 2023
Photovoice in collaboration with Stephanie Morrison (IFF and RGU – Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen)
The blue infinite
Hands fingering to the sky
Keep surrendering
Runforever started a collaboration with Stephanie Morrison (RGU and IFF) offering the photovoice method (previously used in Aberdeen prison 2015) for capturing runners’ experience of the running club through photos and words. Runners were asked to take photos during the running sessions at Grampian and then reflect and comment on the ones that they found meaningful. Some wrote short texts or short poems in the form of haikus. The process triggered conversations among runners and offered insights about health and wellbeing.
Photos and narratives have been Exhibited on a story board on the September 27th event at HMP Grampian for the festival “Towards a sustainable healthy prison”.
The photovoice has been a very positive experience for showing the importance of other ways of valuing the process beyond data gathering. Together with the radio show – Runningstories, this is a way of highlighting warm data (Nora Bateson). The project resists conventional forms of evaluation and instead aims at co-creating new forms of value from the inside.
Photovoice continues in the next months!
6 July 2023
Runforever published on Stride, Jogscotland magazine
Press Editor Sue Guyford writes: “There are few things more physically limiting – by design – than being in prison. Jog Leader Paolo Maccagno (p16) decided to use the lessons he learned from running marathons and hitting “the wall”, to help prisoners at HMP & YOI Grampian deal with the walls around them in a constructive way. Many of the runners in his group have now completed their first 5K and Paolo hopes to have given them a fresh perspective in the process”.
Wednesday 7th June 2023
“Finisher” celebration event at HMP & YOI Grampian
Runforever organised a Finisher event on Wednesday 7th June 2023 to celebrate the first four months of the running club at HMP Grampian. Prisoner-runners have run together in a team for 30 minutes. The running programme proposed for these first months followed NHS couch to 5k and allowed everyone to be able to run for 30 minutes (approximately 5k). The event was conceived to emphasise being “finisher” (as marathon running does) rather than winning the race and promote running as a collective experience of a team. At the end of the run there was a celebration with party and cake shared with runners, members of prison staff and of organisations helping with the project held at the Media Unit of the prison.
Wednesday 8th February 2023
Runforever Pilot Project starts at HMP & YOI Grampian
Runforever started a new pilot project in February 2023, supported by initial funding in collaboration with Peterhead prison (HMP & YOI Grampian) and a few charity organizations (IFF-International Futures¸ Shmu- Aberdeen Community Media Charity, Familiesoutside) for a running club that will serve as a bridge between inside and outside the prison. This specific focus addresses the urgent issue of prisoners tending to reoffend when back in the outer world and entering into a vicious loop of social exclusion and separation. The running club welcomes at the same time runners from inside and outside the prison, overcoming risks of stigmatization. It addresses exactly the transition of prisoners in the outer community and issues of health and wellbeing (evidenced as weak in Prison Reports) in the wider society. For strengthening the idea of the bridge, it creates links between outside and inside through a radio show – Runningstories, created in collaboration with Shmu and the Media Unit of the prison giving voice to stories of runners about their running experience and the impact on their health and wellbeing. It also organizes races and fun runs with the prison and outside, providing the opportunity to bring prisoners and families together (in collaboration with Familiesoutiside) and health wellbeing events for promoting a sustainable healthy prison (with HMP & YOI Grampian).