For the past 15 years, together with the I.Zone IPS team I have been partnering with public and private organizations searching for a wide range of funding opportunities - the ones that best fit the needs of our partners strategy.  In the prison context, our team has been able to work together with the Portuguese, Romanian and German Prison Administration in order to find the proper funding strategy sourcing both national, European or World Bank funding.

Together we have developed the proper funding strategy; identified adequate funding sources; developed the applications for funding according to partner’s needs and funding schemes requirements; selected the most suitable transnational partnerships and developed and managed the projects when funded.

EU funded Strategic Projects:

in Portugal:

PGISP – Gerir para Inovar os Serviços Prisionais, 1,8 Million Euro funding  www.pgisp.info

in Romania:

Credem-in-Schimbare, 5 Million Euro funding  www.credem-in-schimbare.org

A few examples of projects recently submitted for funding are:

CIS – GAME: Critical Incidents Simulation Game for Correctional Staff Training

Promoted by I.Zone Knowledge Systems involving prison systems from 5 European Member-states. These partners, together with I.Zone IPS team have been working together searching innovative approaches to prison management and prison staff training, specially training for high demanding situations.  The CIS Game project aims to develop a game-based simulation training course on how to act in Critical Incidents in order to prepare fist and second line officers, and to take the appropriate steps to return to normal operations. Through the use of serious games, using immersive learning technologies, prison staff (command officers and non-supervisory staff) will learn how to respond to situations that overcome their daily operations.

EXOCOP: reintegration of ex-offenders Community of Practice

The EXOCOP community of practice on the reintegration of ex-offenders is financed by the European Commission and was designed together with the IPS team and Justiz Bremen and involves prison authorities from Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy (ministry of justice and regions of Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardia and Toscana), Netherlands, Poland,  Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, UK England & Wales, UK Northern Ireland and Germany.

NewOP, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Romania, Germany

Social Economy by Social Enterprising, Portugal, UK, Romania

Art and Bars, promoted by Pictora Ltd, UK

Green Entrepreneurship, promoted by Cementafuture Ltd, UK

Unlock Learned Helplessness, promoted by Cementafuture Ltd, UK

Prisons in Europe: A Pan-European Approach to Staff Training / PIEuST

Promoted by the Salford University Centre for Prison Studies involving partners from all over Europe, the aim of the project is to develop an enhanced professional foundation amongst European prison staff comparable, or surpassing, current international standards with regard to decency, human rights and professionalism. This will help to ensure that each Prison Service fulfils its obligations to those in custody and to the wider community. The development of the proposed e-learning project aims to ensure that staff will be capable of meeting the growing challenges of the work and will share the core values promoted by the European Convention on Human Rights in addition to developing prison-specific competencies and a sense of enhanced professionalization.