Our Voice started as a youth listening project, working with a group of young people in London who were making use of the Prisoners Families & Friends Service. Pact organised a range of activities and listening events, which culminated in a new ‘Charter for Children & Young People Affected by the Imprisonment of a family member.’ The young people called this ‘Our Voice’. Pact published the document and we encourage you now to lend your name to it. To read the Charter in full, please click here. 

Following this initiative, we were struck by the power of what young people were saying about their experiences of when a family member was arrested, and in particular, when the police entered the family home. We sought the support of Comic Relief and the Pilgrim Trust, and thanks to their generous funding, we developed the Hear Our Voice programme.

Hear Our Voice is a multi-stranded initiative. We are training schools and police officers, We are developing online resources. We are established a highly effective partnership with Place2Be. And of course, we are engaging with and listening to young people, with lived experience, so that we are rooting everything we do in their needs and aspirations.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Read the Charter