When Men Find Their Voice: Fathers Inside Showcase 2025

This year marks 30 years of SIG Safe Ground delivering arts-based, therapeutically informed group interventions that support people in custody to reflect, reconnect and rebuild through creativity and compassion.

At HMP Altcourse, we are proud to manage the Family Service and the Outside Visits Centre, providing vital support to families alongside our in-prison programmes. Everything we do is grounded in the belief that creativity and connection can transform lives, and that strong family relationships play a crucial role in reducing reoffending.

On Friday, 31st October 2025, the chapel at HMP Altcourse once again became the setting for our Fathers Inside showcase event. This event marks the culmination of a month-long programme exploring what it means to be a father in custody. Through games, creative writing, performance, poetry and group discussion, participants explored their own experiences, learned therapeutic tools and built a new community of men committed to doing things differently.

The men begin the month as strangers and end it as a community, equipped with new skills, insight, and confidence that strengthen relationships during and beyond their sentences.

Every session, including the showcase event, begins with a circle of chairs. This simple yet powerful structure ensures that everyone is seen and heard—a principle central to our work. From this same circle, the participants guided the audience through the event, introducing activities, performing their own original poetry and performing a piece of theatre that captured the essence of the learning.

In the early sessions of the programme, a few participants insisted, “I can’t write a poem.” Four weeks later, each man had contributed to the printed poetry book and performed with self-belief and confidence. The transformation we witness over just four weeks is profound, making every challenge along the way worthwhile.

Throughout the programme, participants explore personal experiences, memories, hopes and ambitions. Together, the group listens and reflects as they support and learn from one another, sharing their thoughts and feelings and discovering courage in vulnerability and strength in community. We often hear that our sessions “don’t feel like being in prison” as we work with participants to create safer spaces where growth, reflection and creativity can flourish.

Anyone who has ever worked on a live event knows that until the final word is spoken and the last note is played, you never quite relax. You hope every participant feels heard, seen and proud. We want participants to leave feeling hopeful and accomplished, and for guests to leave feeling inspired and connected.

Once again, the men of Fathers Inside delivered a moving and memorable event, leading the event with skill, clarity, self-belief and genuine emotion. Many in the audience were brought to tears during the closing reflections as one participant summed up the impact for him: “If I’d done things like this at school, or as a younger man, I might not have ended up in this situation.”

Every participant did themselves, SIG Safe Ground, and HMP Altcourse proud.

With limited capacity for guests, our showcases always feature a select group of special invitees. This time, we were joined by colleagues from Sodexo, the HMP Forest Bank team, Mersey Care, Liverpool City Council’s Lived Experience Mentors, Raymond Smith from Inside Time and the newly appointed CEO of Social Interest Group, Mark Milton.

Just as final preparations were completed and the audience began to arrive, someone whispered to me in surprise: “Who’s that in the chains? Is that the Mayor?”. It was indeed, as we were also honoured to welcome the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Barbara Murray. Her warmth, positivity, respect and enthusiasm made a lasting impression on everyone present. An artist and poet herself, she shared some impactful closing words recognising the men’s achievements and the transformative power of their work.

We are grateful to everyone who attended. Their presence helps validate the men’s efforts, showing that people want to hear their voices and support their growth.

To the men of Fathers Inside, October 2025: thank you for your honesty, humour, courage and commitment. To our partners, colleagues and supporters: thank you for helping to make it possible.

The next Fathers Inside programme will start in April 2026, and we look forward to supporting another group of dads as they embark on their own journeys of reflection, growth and reconnection.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Social Interest Group. Any content our bloggers or authors provide is their opinion and is written to promote discussion and raise awareness of topics.