The eternal flame of motivation

Guest blogger Corin Morgan-Armstrong, director of Invisible Walls, writes about people’s extraordinary potential for change and the advantages of being a community interest company

When I first read Dune as a sixteen-year-old, this quote blazed like fire for me. It was precisely the guidance I needed at that time, and I have carried it with me throughout my life… It continues to teach me.

The work of Invisible Walls is fundamentally about change. Change that begins with the individual, and then slowly emanates outwards, bringing new light and new hope to those significant to that individual, who themselves become enabled by the change they witness, and in time, change within cultures and communities.

At Invisible Walls, we know this to be true. We have seen it time and time again, and in doing so it drives us forward to deliver and build the best possible support we can for those impacted by imprisonment on both sides of the wall.

Among our phenomenal team of staff and volunteers delivering support services to children, families, people in, and leaving prison, we are blessed to have dedicated, tenacious, passionate professionals who have erudite experience of working in diverse prisons, who have themselves served sentences in prison, and who have loved ones in prison. Invisible Walls has always been about a ‘whole family’ approach, equally focused on all family members, enabling personal agency through Trauma Informed methodology, motivating personal change through sincere, principled, realistic mentoring and support.

Invisible Walls, which was established in 2006 and was registered as a community interest company in 2023, is not about becoming stagnated and dispirited by the ever-present depressing statistics and reports about reoffending rates, intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviours and the desolation of local communities. Instead, we seek to champion the rights of the child to not only, where appropriate, maintain positive contact with a parent in prison, but also to enable them to believe in and strive towards their own future potential, unhindered by statistical probability.

The same is true for those leaving prison. ‘Family’ – whatever that means to the individual – can be the eternal flame of motivation that propels them, and indeed all of us, forward, helping us face the often-cruel challenges of life stronger and with an indomitable hope that the future can and will indeed be different, better.

Why Invisible Walls?

The question often arises ‘why is Invisible Walls called Invisible Walls?’ The name is a metaphor for what we strive to achieve with people in prison, and with their families and significant others in the community. For we have experienced that when an individual in custody is able to start to feel the impact of their situation on the people they love the most and matter the most to them… that empathic awakening can become a catalyst to change.

If the walls were transparent – invisible – and the person in prison could somehow see through the wall of the cell, and of the prison, across the distance to where their loved ones live, and see through that wall… to witness, to feel the emotional and practical impact of their imprisonment, then the motivation to change, for things to be different, is sparked into flame.

But we have also seen the reverse to be true. Where family members have been able to witness for themselves – to see through the prison walls – the genuine and often herculean efforts people choose to make while in prison, to try and right the wrongs, to fight addiction, to equip and skill themselves to be ready to embrace opportunities in prison and on release, to become the best parent, son or daughter they can be… then that too has a catalyst impact on family young and old, who have often long given up hope that things will be any different.

Over the years we have also noticed that through this metaphorical invisibility of the walls, prison staff, and community professional, teachers, employers, social workers have also had a shift in their perception of what prison can achieve, and also that children and families with a loved one in prison are not to be derided, stigmatised, left isolated and alone in our communities; that they need support, they have rights, aspirations and potential, and that they are an integral and arguably the most powerful part of the societal change and reform we are all seeking.

CIC opportunities

One of the advantages of becoming a CIC is that our status as a not-for-profit business enables us to compete and apply for a significantly broader range of service delivery opportunities. Previously we were restricted to the private prison estate within one specific organisation, which although supported the evolution of Invisible Walls, it ultimately meant a glass ceiling.

Operating as a CIC has allowed us to win new contracts in public prisons in England and Wales, in addition to applying for and securing grants from various trusts and philanthropic organisations, such as the Waterloo Foundation, which is funding our Schools and Prisons Coordinator role – a vital grant that means we can grow our successful school service and support even more children and families in desperate need.

Ultimately, as a CIC, our growth and survival depends upon securing short-, medium- and long-term funding, and while we now have a greater opportunity to apply for and achieve this, it still obviously comes with risk. As such, we are always looking for potential partnership as well as new sponsors and donors to help us maintain and expand our unique services.

Should you be interested in making contact to learn more, please contact: corin@invisiblewalls.co.uk or 07793180493.

Click here to view a video of Corin Morgan-Armstrong’s TED talk about the work of Invisible Walls.