Welcome to
Invisible Walls
(IW CIC)
The Invisible Walls story began back in 2006 at HMP Parc in Bridgend South Wales, under the name of Parc Supporting Families whose mission was quite simply to provide support, guidance and tangible help to people in prison, who wanted to rebuild or retain their relationships with their children and loved ones in the community.
Corin Morgan-Armstrong, Director of Family Interventions.
Gradually, over the years the remit evolved and started to include the delivery of various family focused interventions delivered in the prison visiting hall, and then later expanded to offer long term mentoring support for the whole family, whilst the father was in custody, and then after release and through the period of resettlement.
Invisible Walls was responsible for opening the first Family Interventions Unit for fathers in the UK at HMP Parc in 2009, a model that has since been successfully replicated in G4S and public sector prisons, as well in prisons outside of the UK. The Family Intervention Units create a unique enabling environment for those men who wish to commit themselves to repairing the damage their choices have rendered upon their families.
In 2010 the Invisible Walls model also encompassed a culture breaking approach to the social visiting experience within prisons. Exchanging the often overtly security focused visits, for one that promotes positive, warm, friendly family engagement. Since 2014 Invisible Walls has delivered a specific focus on the importance of, where appropriate, the fathers active involvement in the educational attainment of their children. We have developed the Children’s Showcase which offers teachers and support staff from different schools to attend with families, children, and the fathers, a special event in the prison visits hall, where the whole family can engage with the school and celebrate the progress and resilience of their remarkable children.
Along the way, the Invisible Walls team have been honoured with numerous awards from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, and a special award from the Centre for Social Justice and no less than four individual Butler Trust Awards presented at Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace. The Invisible Walls model has been shared with correctional services across five continents.
In 2022 Invisible Walls expanded its remit to start delivering support services in visitor Centre and visiting halls in five public sector prisons in England and Wales, and in G4S prisons.
More recently, in 2023, Invisible Walls became incorporated as Community Interest Company, a not-for-profit organisation, so as to expand its services through drawing down funding from a variety of sources, and being able to attract corporate sponsorship as part of the social value agenda.
IW CIC has ambitious plans for the future, but ultimately, at its core, the same intention remains … that of offering sincere, principled support for children and families and for those in, and leaving prison, all of which make a significant contribution not only to the reduction of re-offending rates, but just as importantly, the reduction of the development of inter-generational criminal attitudes and behaviours.