Turning Proceeds of Crime into something good

9th March 2024

Since 2014 we have been managing the Essex Police Proceeds of Crime Matched Funding Scheme (POCA). Under the Scheme, all donations into the High Sheriff’s Fund or to set up individual charitable funds, can be matched with 50% from the monies we receive from POCA. The only restriction is that the grantmaking from these Funds must support projects or organisations whose work is contributing to community safety in the county.

To date, the value of the endowed funds set up with support from the POCA Scheme is £1.2 million.

Below are local charities that have received support from the Funds set up with POCA match:

Ormiston Families work across Essex supporting those affected by the imprisonment of a family member. (Pictured are staff introducing Dylan, an animated charcter, who helps to explain prison visits to children).

They received £4,000 from the Leeze Charitable Fund which was set up with support from the POCA Scheme. The funding was to help with the staff costs associated with their prison outreach service called Breaking Barriers.

Through the Breaking Barriers programme, Ormiston Families provides free and non-judgemental support to children throughout Essex with a family member in prison. It is an early intervention initiative, designed around the principle of working “with families” rather than “for families”.

To create lasting change in the lives of the children they help, Ormiston Families prioritise building trust with the children, sharing access to crucial services, and supporting parents on their journey. Through this, not only do the children experience greater mental wellbeing, but they are guided away from the cycle of intergenerational offending, and to achieving their own goals.

Thanks to the group’s efforts, children like Archie learn that the actions of their parent do not define their future. When his dad was placed in prison, Archie displayed troublesome behaviour at school and began isolating in his room. His Breaking Barriers practitioner was able to explore with him how he felt, how to use coping mechanisms and how to communicate this at school so that he could receive additional day-to-day support.

In Archie’s own words, “It was good to have someone to talk to, to help me not misbehave”. His new school have noticed an incredible change in Archie which would not have been possible without the help of Ormiston Families.

Ormiston Families work hard to amend the second-hand effects of a parent in prison by:

administering more than 24,000 support sessions,
bringing more than 59,000 visitors to their loved ones in prison, and
helping more than 80% of their clients to feel safer, healthier and better able to cope with their situation.

Off the Streets, based in Southend, received £2,500 from the River City Fund, which was set up with support from the Proceeds of Match Funding Scheme (POCA).

The funding supported the operational costs of the organisation which supports rough sleepers getting into independent living, as well as helping with issues that might contribute to becoming homeless, such as drug, alcohol and gambling addiction.

Homelessness is a complex issue, rarely seen in isolation, and Off the Streets takes this understanding into their outreach work. They treat every person as an individual, deserving of dignity, honesty and sympathy, no matter what circumstances may have led to them becoming homeless. Once the person enters the shelter in Southend, the organisation immediately starts to build a trusting relationship and find them permanent housing, so that the journey never loses momentum.

Over a period of 106 weeks, the team were able to get 97 people out of rough sleeping and into more permanent accommodation. One of the individuals who received this help had been without fixed accommodation for a decade. In addition, they helped 21 people find jobs to support themselves. The impact of the team’s work is noticeable and is greatly appreciated by those who stop at the shelter.

Thanks to support from ECF and other funders, Off the Streets can continue its vital work, handing out more meal parcels, bringing more cases to local agencies to get people into accommodation, and providing more advice to those in need of mental health support.

These volunteers provide so much to the vulnerable rough sleepers of Southend.

Cara (Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse) based in Colchester, received £4,000 from three of our charitable funds set up with support from the Proceeds of Crime Matched Funding Scheme. This funding supported the salary of a Young Person’s Practitioner, to work with children and young people who have experienced sexual violence or child sexual abuse.

Therapy, often provided 1 to 1, is so helpful for people, including children, who have experienced trauma or are vulnerable due to other circumstances. In 2022, CARA paired counsellors with over 225 young people, supporting and acting as advocates for them. Though the team fully expects the number of referrals they receive to continue increasing, they are preparing to face the challenge by organising a robust programme with a compassionate team and they have plans to expand and reach out to more young people.

This includes working with schools to raise awareness and help staff and teachers to better understand the needs of vulnerable students and ensure their needs are met. To support this, CARA has made a series of videos that can easily be used in classrooms (these can be viewed here).

Helen Parr, CEO of CARA said, “Thank you so much for supporting CARA’s specialist counselling service for young people who have been victims of sexual violence or child sexual abuse.

“CARA is the only organisation in our area providing this vital support for young victims and survivors, and there is a huge demand for our service. In 2023, we received 254 new referrals for young people aged 13-17.

“We are very proud of our team of compassionate and committed Young Person’s Practitioners, who provide one-to-one therapeutic support for young people, helping them to understand what has happened to them and how it has affected them, recognise they are not to blame and develop coping skills to help them move forward with their lives.”

Turning Proceeds of Crime into something good

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