About Us
Action for Prisoners’ Families (APF) was established in 1990 (under the name of the Federation of Prisoners’ Families Support Groups) to act as the voice for, and to support the development of, organisations working with families of prisoners. It is a membership organisation with full membership being open only to organisations providing direct services to families of prisoners.
During the past 17 years APF has grown from having a membership of just 25 to around 170 organisations as members (including prison visitors’ centres and family support groups) and a further 65 individual supporters (including prisoners’ families). We believe this encompasses most of the organisations providing a specified service to families of prisoners.
Organisations working with families of prisoners are often very small and isolated and many are started by people with direct experience of imprisonment in the family with little or no professional experience.
We also work increasingly with prison staff, recognising the pressure they are under and supporting them to develop more family centred practice.
APF:
Helps organisations to both start up and develop their services;
Provides opportunities to share good practice through networking forums and events, the APF magazine Action News, and special projects;
Engages, consults and informs our members over both practice and policy affecting prisoners and their families;
Offers information, training and advice;
Publishes and disseminates information and resources to assist members in their service delivery.
APF is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. We are governed by a Board of Management elected on a 3 year rolling basis by the members. All nominees must be proposed and seconded by an existing APF member or trustee. All members receive the Annual Review and summary accounts as well as regular communications from us.
All major projects have special advisory groups with members and prisoners’ family representation on them. Where appropriate, specific consultations are carried out both with our members, and with families themselves using the Prisoners’ Families Helpline, the APF website and our members. We also undertake research with families and prisoners to inform particular project work. Our work is informed by evidence gathered from our members and from the detailed monitoring of the Prisoners’ Families Helpline to ensure it reflects current family concerns.
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"She mustn't think we don't love her ... if we don't keep in touch she will think we don't love her and she will harm herself again." (sisters aged 15 and 13, mother in prison.)
Home Office research has found that families are up to six times less likely to reoffend if they maintain strong family ties whilst in prison.