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This year marks a significant milestone for SIG Safe Ground as we celebrate three decades of pioneering work in prisons and communities across the UK. From its early days to becoming a leading voice for creativity and connection in the criminal justice system, SIG Safe Ground has always championed human dignity and transformation.
As part of this special feature, we sat down with Dan Boyden, Arts & Learning Strategic Lead, who has been delivering SIG Safe Ground programmes for over a decade and recently stepped into a leadership role. Dan shares what first drew him to this work, the power of creativity in shaping lives, and his vision for Safe Ground’s next chapter.
What initially drew you to SIG Safe Ground in 2012, and what kept you engaged and part of the team?
I’ve always worked as a freelancer in the arts world, and the development world (youth development, community, international). The prison’s work felt different; prisons are places that are starved of so many of the things we need as humans; connection, respect, empathy and creativity. The work with SIG Safe Ground brought some of that in a way that felt needed, it was vital and the distance travelled with the men in the room was further than in any of the other work I did.
After years of working as a facilitator and consultant, how does it feel to now step into a formal leadership role?
It feels good to be bringing some of these experiences from the last 13 years to this new role; it’s an opportunity to think longer term, to really go deeper into the work and to join some of the dots between the different prisons and communities we’re working with – it’s such an exciting time for SIG Safe Ground, there’s a momentum growing externally as well as a chance to look internally and support other services across the organisation through some of the approaches we take.
You’ve delivered flagship programmes like Fathers Inside and Man Up across the UK. What moments from that work have left a lasting impact on you? Creativity and art clearly shape your approach. How do you see that ‘artistic thread’ influencing SIG Safe Ground’s future?
Every programme I run changes me slightly – it has an effect on me as well as I the people that we work with. Doing this work and becoming a Dad myself has allowed me to reflect on how I show up as a Dad, as a son, as a brother; to look at my relationship with the men in my life and how that has shaped how I see the world and who I am. The arts and creativity give you a way of looking at things differently. There’s a whole load of assumptions to unpack still though, people still always think we’re sort of doing Shrek the Musical!!
You’ve spoken about embedding learning and keeping creativity at the centre of SIG Safe Ground. How do co-production, artistic practice, and facilitator networks come together to help the organisation take root in communities?
Networks and relationships feel important at every level of what we do at SIG Safe Ground – from the men in the room, the staff team and the way we connect with all the prison stakeholders. We need build trust andunderstanding. I’m also really interested in how decisions are made, who makes them and what spaces are needed to really bring in different voices, perspectives and experiences to ensure decisions are built from the bottom up, in a collaborative and creative way, not just the from the top down.
As SIG Safe Ground expands into new custodial and community spaces, what excites you most about this next chapter?
The possibilities for SIG Safe Ground over the next chapter are massive. It feels like there’s a confidence in what we’re bringing and the work we’re doing, there’s an appetite for it. There’s also more evidence of the results, both qualitative and quantitative, to help us really prove and talk about the impact and the value of what we’re doing, that’s exciting.
And finally, what’s something people might be surprised to learn about you, either professionally or personally?
I played football for a season in the Zambian 2nd Division, where my manager pretended to the opposition manager that I used to play in the Premier League for Portsmouth as a wind up. Everyone was a foot taller than me and much, much better at football but I was a key part of the team, more for morale than footballing ability.
