From Ayana Gibbs, London Public Speakers
London Public Speakers will be hosting a Prison Volunteering Workshop led by Ayana Gibbs (Forensic Psychiatrist & VPE, London Public Speakers) and Susan Tordella (Activist & Prison Toastmasters Volunteer Co-ordinator, Eastern Massachusetts & Rhode Island) on Tuesday 10 November 2015. Toastmasters club members are welcome to attend. Please register here
Time: 18:45-20:00 (arrive at 18:30 for 18:45 start)
Venue: School for Social Entrepreneurs, 2nd Floor, 139 Tooley Street, SE1 2HZ
The entrance is in Abbots Lane, a side road to the left, as you look at the front of Old Fire Brigade Station restaurant.
This initial workshop will take the form of an informal Q&A session. The aim of the workshop is to introduce London Toastmasters to the D91 Prison Volunteering Initiative. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to make the Toastmasters Educational Programme accessible to prisoners throughout the UK by setting up gavel or chartered clubs in prison. As a first step it will focus on delivering Toastmasters Speechcraft programmes in up to 2 prisons in or around London. A key objective of this workshop will be to identify a team of around 4-5 interested volunteers to organise and co-ordinate the delivery of 4-8 Speechcraft sessions each prison, starting in early 2016.
During the workshop, Ayana and Susan will discuss:
- The nature and importance of the initiative
- What level of commitment is involved
- The UK prison environment and what is involved in visiting prisons
- Challenges of setting up and sustaining prison clubs
- The benefits for prisoners and volunteers
As it is intended to be an informal Q&A, formal presentation will be limited in favour of time for questions, interaction and discussion. We plan to run a further workshop focussed on training confirmed volunteers in January 2016. We hope you will be able to join us on November 10 and look forward to meeting you then. Please register your attendance here so that we can anticipate the number of attendees.