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Circles South West Annual General Meeting took place on 24th September in Taunton and featured a Core Member speaking about their Circle.

Service User Involvement is always extremely important to us at Circles South West and we were delighted to be able to invite one of our Core Members to share their story at the AGM.

Coordinator Jamie Stephenson facilitated a discussion and Q&A session with both a Core Member and a Volunteer from his Circle.

Below is an excerpt taken from the presentation on the day:

JAMIE: I’m really pleased to be here today. We were at a team meeting and talking about our service users and I immediately thought of this circle, they represent everything that’s right in Circles and the balance of support and accountability.

CORE MEMBER: Um, I’m the CM. I’ve recently come out of prison, I was in prison for 10 years, for a serious sexual offence. I’m on licence for another 10 years. I’ve really recently moved to the West Country to start again. I am so grateful to Circles and my four Circle members, because it has made a difference. It was slightly daunting to think about coming here today but then I thought about how well Circles have supported me.

VOLUNTEER: I’m a volunteer in this Circle. I’m a student and I study psychology. I’m in my first year and although I’m in my early twenties, I’m classed as a mature student so I don’t know how that works.

JAMIE: And do you want to tell a little bit about what attracted you to our services.

VOLUNTEER: So, I want to work within the criminal justice system. Specifically, along the psychological side of things, for example, Forensic Psychology is what’s really interesting to me. This is now my second Circle, I did a young person Circle last year. Then I wanted to try something different. So, when Jamie said that there was an adult circle coming up, I said yes.

What attracted me to Circles in the first place? Was even before I went to University, I was in a job that I just, I didn’t really see going anywhere. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. And I knew that I had an interest there. So, I thought what I’ll do is I’ll get a little taste beforehand and see if I like it. I applied, did my training and it was like a ball had dropped. It was like, oh my God, this is what I want to do! And, I hope to continue working with Circles as long as I’m able.

JAMIE: To give a bit of context, I met CM back in October last year. I was instantly impressed because he threw his hands up in the air and admitted his offence and said I don’t know what to do I need some support, and so there has never been a time when I doubted his potential for progress.

Since then, he joined a Circle and has had 36 meetings. Two reviews. So, we are sort of going towards the end of it and that’s 191 hours of volunteers. So if you, CM, could tell us, when you heard about Circles and what attracted you to us.

CORE MEMBER: I was in a sex offenders’ prison, and frankly they knew nothing about Circles. It was only because I actually joined a Quaker group, and they have a strong link with Circles and I found out what I could from there. So, that’s really how I got the first impression about Circles. The Area Coordinator was going to be coming to prison to talk to the rest of the guys but I left before then. When I came back out in 2024 I said to my Probation Officer I’ve heard about Circles, it feels like it’s going to be the right thing for me. It sort of started from there.

JAMIE: What’s it like, walking into that room, meeting the four volunteers. Who, you know, know all about you and you know nothing about them?

CORE MEMBER: Actually, it was surprisingly calm, I think because I had an opportunity to talk to you Jamie. I felt reassured that I’d made the right choice. So, from that point of view, I was fairly relaxed about it.

And my view of Circles, from what I understood, which was wrong information, it was going to be like an inquisitive bunch of 10 people with notes and various bits and most of whom will be men, probably experts, ex officers or probation officers. It was really surprising to come across three young women. Who I immediately clocked as very intelligent, very committed and it was a new experience for me.

That took a bit of getting used to but I think what really helped was you doing the introductions and then they spoke about why they were doing what they were doing and that put me at ease. I then said, out loud, what I had done, how I felt about what I’d done.

I knew full well that they all knew about it, but it felt really important for me to say. And they were superb about it and I think that set the scene to that first meeting as very positive. I think actually, it’s progressed from there.

JAMIE: So, Volunteer, what’s it like as a Volunteer in that initial meeting?

VOLUNTEER: I think it’s different every time. With my first Circle because I hadn’t done it before, I had this preconception of who was going to walk into that room and then I remember in that first Circle, it was just a kid in a hoodie that walked into the room. It was completely different from what I was expecting. So, then I think it made it a lot easier going into the second Circle because it was a lot easier to not picture what you’re going to look like.  I think it does just get easier with each Circle that you do because you know a little bit more each time. You know, that this is not just copy and paste of who an offender is. So, I really enjoy it and I actually get excited to meet the new core members.

JAMIE: So CM, what were the challenges? And how does your Circle help with these challenges?

CORE MEMBER: If the Circles can help me stay positive then there’s far less chance to ever reoffend again. So, you are directly preventing further victimisation.

But before we look at my challenges, I just want to make a statement. On a daily basis. I still think about the harm I’ve done to my victim, by association my victim’s family, and other people I know.

So, when we talk about my challenges, it’s really important that as a Core Member, I don’t forget what I’ve done and that’s important to me. So, whilst I’m happy to talk about my challenges I haven’t lost sight of the harm that I’ve actually caused.

JAMIE: No, I agree an old volunteer said that looking forward and glancing back is what we do in Circles.

CORE MEMBER: The challenges I guess there’s probably three things really if I can summarise them. First and foremost, there’s a direct result of what I did my family. They’ve disowned me entirely and it’s the right thing for them to do. And I understand that it’s an incredibly hard thing to do.

Particularly after 10 years in prison, coming out at my age without my family there, who in my entire world, it’s really hard. From a Circles point of view, they can’t change that. I can’t change that it’s entirely my responsibility of what happened. But at least they understand and they understand that talking about my family is still difficult and they’re very supportive of that point of view but they’re also excellent at pointing out the obvious, that this is the state of play. I think just my Circle knowing enough about me and my concerns. My regret is incredibly powerful and that gives me a lot of encouragement and gets me over those darker times to be very honest.

Second thing is, I come from a background where myself and my colleagues are the people who sorted other people’s problems out. Therefore, I’ve never really had to ask for help because it wasn’t within my self-esteem to do so I can ask for help. I was offending because of the consequences of that.

So it was a challenge to actually say I need help because sex offenders are quite egocentric people. That was a challenge to actually open up and actually say, “you know what? I do need a second opinion. I need some help with this”.

This Circle, has been emotional outside of this. And it’s important because if emotions, influence thinking and thinking influences behaviour, then if I don’t get my emotions sorted then the likelihood of reoffending is higher. We’ve spent a huge amount of time going through key emotions. Going through key emotions to me both good and bad and how they practically impact upon my life.

And while you might talk about emotions in prison or on cognitive behaviour courses, it’s not the same. When you’re actually back out in the community and you’re on your own, you’re starting again. So Circles, we’ve literally got up on a whiteboard and gone through my emotions and looked at the positives and negatives for each of them. I’ve never done that in my life before. Honestly, I’ve talked the talk in prison but out here, with the volunteers’ offering viewpoints in a different way, you know of handling regret, hope, happiness if I can use that word? That is incredibly useful. So, that’s the biggest thing I think we’ve done, and that’s taken weeks and weeks. We’ve looked at that, and we’ll continue to do so.

JAMIE: I get the minutes and I get lots of information and I think that it’s amazing just the depth you go into that and how CM bring this to you.

So, what would you say stood out to you most in these tasks on emotions?

VOLUNTEER: So what stands out for me is, and I really like it personally because it really shows how CM visualises his own emotions. CM will bring in a spreadsheet of his emotions a lot of the time. And I really like that because it really shows the intricate details of what’s going on in his head outside of when we’re in the circle, and after what we do on the whiteboard, we love a little whiteboard meeting.

We will break it down into different levels and stuff and obviously there are some times and some emotions CM refuses to admit that you might have been this. But it’s really good to sort of show how these emotions aren’t necessarily bad, nor necessarily good, they’re just emotions and you need to find the ways of working through them and just regulating yourself.

So what you’re saying about glancing back, we discussed how your Shadow is always going to be there. You can’t run away from it. You just have to walk with it and that’s I think what we really go into every single week.

CORE MEMBER: Yeah. I think one of the hardest things for me was I shouldn’t be enjoying what I have now because I don’t deserve it. And that’s genuine.

And you’ve probably seen posts saying it’s okay not to be okay, well that applies, but in my case it’s also it’s okay to be okay and that was something I’ll still come to terms with and I need to feel okay about my new life because it’s a positive thing and not dwell all the time on the negative.

But Circles have done that. Had I not been in Circles I would’ve just been in that dark place. Circle’s really helped with that.

JAMIE: What I see with your circle is this beautiful balance of support and accountability, which is what Circles is meant for.

I think we take different goals, but somehow, and people will be different in terms of their support and in terms of their accountability. It is so important to get that balance because that’s not easy to do that as a Core Member. What would you say?

CORE MEMBER: I think compliance has never really been an issue for me. Although there were two circumstances, Christmas last year where I allowed some old CM thinking to come back in that was robustly dealt with but it was a good warning shot and I told Circles and Probation. So, it hasn’t really been an issue. It’s more about what I’ve been held to account for is it’s the things I should be doing.

It’s more about, hang on, you said you’re going to join this group. And the Volunteers will know, I’m really reluctant about joining groups because it’s a personal thing, I don’t feel right in any group. However, I know they’re good for it. We sort of come to an agreement. That I will do this, whether it’s joining a Ramblers or a star gazing group, local history, whatever it might be. The latest one is sort of like an adult male sort of support group. So, I’m held to account by the Circle and asked “well did you go? What did you do?” and they know enough about me, that I will try and avoid it by possibly can, they won’t let me.

Their encouragement gets me out there more because it’s so easy to go back to Old CM recluse which I had to be to, you know, to hide the offending. I don’t want to be that recluse again. Without the positive stuff, then the offending becomes more likely.

The volunteers have different life experiences they come from different angles. Each volunteer has a separate power to get into and I think that works.

VOLUNTEER: Like all group work, it’s almost like an orchestra. So you’re all playing different parts and stuff and you can all work with unison too. So and I really, really love the group that I’ve got at the moment because we’re all very, very different.

JAMIE: So you drive a long way to each circle meeting. What would be the things you enjoy in the circle as I always hear a lot of laughter.

CORE MEMBER: I think just being able to talk about everyday things, not necessarily license conditions, everyday things. Knowing that my Circle know the restrictions on my life, what worries me and, you know, my strengths and weaknesses so to speak. That’s an incredibly relaxing thing to do. I do enjoy that because in all other conversations, even now, while on license I have to be really careful what I say.

During offending, I couldn’t say anything anyway because I would be discovered. So to be able to just relax and talk about the weather or shopping or jam making whatever the case may be. Knowing that they understand.

JAMIE: Okay, I think we’re coming to the end now. So, if circles could change anyway, how could we improve it?

CORE MEMBER: Can I say you can’t improve on perfection?

I think that it’s a catch 22. I think the lack of knowledge about Circles is criminal really within the criminal justice system. If you promote Circles too much, you then let people down because you don’t have capacity. And funding for Circles is a real struggle of all the charities, because people like I used to be are not the favourite people in society.

So getting public support for anything to do with sex offender is a challenge. And people miss the long-term, what you’re preventing is new victims by keeping sex offenders decent.