Programme 2024

Runforever programme 2024
Mentoring prisoners towards health

After one year of work, we feel that a collaboration at a deeper level has been established with HMP Grampian. We are now stepping into another phase of the project which more directly aims at being integrated with the new corporate plan of the prison towards a wider understanding of health which includes its social determinants (social inequalities/inequities and adverse childhood experiences) as suggested by the HMP Recovery, Health & Well-Being Strategy Group. This approach is coherent with Runforever’s philosophy offering educational and mentoring opportunities for prisoners to develop self-awareness through marathon running and Feldenkrais, helping them in their path towards health and recovery. Runforever’s programme for 2024 continues in this direction of travel which aims at humanising prison care/health care.

 

  • Transition to deliver the running club through education and Fife college within the prison in line with our aims and understanding of running as an educational activity.
  • Running sessions every week on Wednesday (collective) at HMP Grampian
  • Organisation and participation to running races and fun runs through the year, including HMPG-New York marathon next November!
  • Jog leaders mentoring course in collaboration with Fife College – training course for prisoners to learn the skills for mentoring other runners within the prison (on the basis of the Jog-leader training course, https://jogscotland.org.uk/jog-leaders/jog-leader-courses/ and working towards Jogscotland qualification)
  • Runningstories – radio show giving voice to runners (prisoners and ex-prisoners) of the running club about their health and wellbeing in collaboration with Richard Skinner – Media Unit HMP Grampian and Shmu-Aberdeen. The radio show is broadcast inside and outside the prison. You can listen to the podcasts on the Runforever website here https://runforever.org.uk/runningstories/ . See also a similar experience in St. Quentin prison which has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, https://www.earhustlesq.com/about
  • Photovoice with Stephanie Morrison (RGU and IFF). Capturing runners’ experience of the running club through photos and words with a health justice approach. The photovoice shows the importance of other ways of valuing the process beyond data gathering (https://runforever.org.uk/photovoice/). Together with the Runningstories – radio show, this is a way of co-creating value from the inside and highlighting warm data (Nora Bateson, https://warmdatalab.net/warm-data)
  • Screening event “26.2 to life” at HMP Grampian. https://www.sanquentinmarathon.com/ – We are organizing a screening event at HMP Grampian for this coming Fall 2024 for sharing the amazing story of a running club in the California prison of St.Quentin and its impact on prisoners’ life.
  • Participation to “Inspiring Change” Scottish Public Health Conference – 1st May 2024, https://scotphconf.org/. Accepted presentation: Marathon running in prison suggests new paths for humanising prison care/health care.
  • Series of workshops with RGU, SUPN (Scottish University Prison Network https://upnetworkblog.wordpress.com/), and IFF (International Future Forums, https://www.internationalfuturesforum.com/: Marathon running in prison suggests new paths for humanising prison care/health care.
  • New Feldenkrais course for runners and non-runners at HMP Grampian (subject to securing additional funding). Particularly addressed to vulnerable prisoners avoiding the fit-gym culture who are at greater risk of frailty and deconditioning and subsequently experience complex health-related issues. Feldenkrais ® is a somatic educational method synthesized in the words “awareness through movement®” aiding rehabilitation for people living with complex health conditions and facilitating a shift to a more healthful/salutogenic orientation in life, https://feldenkrais.com/.
  • Helping the transition back to social life for ex-offenders by facilitating links to running clubs outside (in collaboration with Outreach, HMP Recovery, Health & Well-Being Group and Shmu). In collaboration with volunteers and local running clubs, we aim for offering weekly running sessions for ex-offenders after release. One crucial point for rehabilitation is the context where the individual lives and the relationships they can establish. Runforever enables the formation of a community of support between people (prisoners and non-prisoners) and help build connections with their families. This contributes towards breaking the barriers and walls between them, as running clubs do: “And we will all be Runners…”