Delivering circles of support and accountability to protect communities from sexual harm and sexual reoffending
Last month Peter Yates and I joined the CSA Centre team to host a virtual roundtable for policy makers and professionals, reflecting on our latest publication: Sibling Sexual Abuse: a […]
This is a testing time for Circles, when many of the things we and our core members want to do are not possible. My current Young Adult Circle had its […]
George Streatfeild, the High Sheriff of Dorset said: At my High Sheriff Declaration on 27th March 2020, I summarised my ambition for the year as being to “seek out and […]
Our trustees play a vital role in making sure that Circles South West achieves its core purpose. They strategically oversee the management and administration of the charity, as well as […]
A recent paper from the Lloyds Bank Foundation The Value of Small in a Big Crisis: the distinctive contribution, value and experiences of smaller charities in England and Wales during […]
Tony was one of the first volunteers to be recruited into Circles in Devon back in 2008 when it was still a pilot project delivered by the NSPCC. However, prior […]
Jamie Stephenson, our Devon & Cornwall coordinator, sat down with Kate to discuss the projects taking place in Cornwall and how Circles South West came into being in the county. […]
Findings from the bulletin uses data from the 10 to 15-year-old’s Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). Main points Almost 9 in 10 children (89%) aged 10 to 15 […]
Last week [22nd January 2021] the Home Office released its new strategy to protect children from sexual abuse. The new strategy is a comprehensive look at the policies and practices […]
Let me start by asking you a question. Just bring your gut reaction to mind. It’s about the behaviour of people who have committed serious sexual offences, and ended up […]
Breaking the Cycle is a group-work programme designed to inform, empower and offer support for the non-offending partner or ‘significant other’ of a man who has been accused or convicted […]
Commissioning services for victims of crime in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is a big part of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s job and often this is the […]
Freedom of Information responses from 38 police forces in England and Wales show that 1,220 offences of sexual communication with a child were recorded in the first 3 months of […]
Circles of Support and Accountability [CoSA] are groups of trained community volunteers who support people convicted of a sexual offence (usually contact offences against children) to integrate back into the […]
Setting up a charity and obtaining funds is a good start but in order to actually deliver a service you need to make sure it is well run, sustainable organisation. […]
Diane Wills, trustee of Circles South West, talks to us about what made her write her latest book on working with sex offenders. Published this month we asked her to […]
Successful schemes that reduce crime and transform lives for the better received national recognition on 20 October as the winners of the 2020 Howard League Community Awards were announced. The […]
Here at Circles South West we were keen to read the report published by The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse in July 2020: Key messages from research on […]
10 years ago, we established the charity, extending Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) across the South West, building on the successful projects already running in Devon and Dorset. Since […]
Back in 2016 we adapted the traditional Circles model to meet the needs of young people 14 years plus, and last year secured funding to work with children from the […]
It’s not systems, processes or procedures that change people. It is not even programmes or courses. In my view it is people that change people and this is done by […]
Subsequent action plans set out our response to the lockdown restrictions, including furloughing 7 of our 9 staff, alongside alternative, creative service provision. This ensured the best possible chance of […]
In accordance with Government guidance, Circles South West’s initial 30-day action plan applied the principles of social distancing across all aspects of our work i.e. avoiding non-essential contact with other […]
The presence of people who pose a risk to the community has, understandably, been a concern to communities across time, place, and culture. What can communities (and the concerned professionals […]
Websites like Pornhub are part of a daily routine for more than 120 million people. What happens when our daily routines are gravely disrupted due to an unseen, frightening worldwide […]
Action plan extension and interim changes to personnel Since our previous communication, restrictions have significantly tightened. We do not yet know how long the UK will remain in ‘lockdown’. Our […]
At Circles South West our circles work hard to support and hold to account core members, and one of the ways we do support is to help develop interests and […]
In drawing up our action plan, the health and well-being of our service users, volunteers and staff are paramount whilst we retain a practical commitment to alternative, creative service provision. […]
The lecture examined existing international research on Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) in order to theoretically define it and highlighted how CoSA fits into the prevention framework and how […]
Sara Radford, our coordinator for Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, spoke eloquently to host Graham Seaman about Circles South West; what we do and what we want to achieve, and in particular, […]
As our YPS expands across the region, we are now accepting referrals for a younger cohort in some areas, from 10 years upwards. All Circles of Support and Accountability for […]
Working alongside Jamie Stephenson, John joins us after a long and illustrious career in probation. A professionally qualified Probation Officer, John has extensive knowledge and experience in criminal justice, gained […]
AmazonSmile offers 0.5% of the net purchase price to charities and Circles South West has signed up to be one of the recipients. To support us sign up with AmazonSmile […]
Neil Claughton has joined us as the Circles Coordinator for Dorset and will manage our existing Circles in the County as well as leading on our newest initiative, Prison/Through The […]
Adele Robinson’s documentary ‘Special Report: Inside the Circle’ described how Circles of Support and Accountability uses community volunteers to help prevent sexual harm. The documentary questions many of the negative […]
This week our Circles Coordinator for Devon & Cornwall spoke to Cornwall’s Pirate FM about what the figures mean and more broadly about our work with people who have sexually […]
Maz spoke to us about what inspired her, the premise of the play and her plans for the play’s future. I have been a Circles South West Volunteer for just […]
Circles South West is an independent charity that works to prevent sexual abuse by reducing the risk of sexual re-offending through its innovative community-based approach. We provide Circles of Support […]
We were delighted to welcome Matthew Trerise, a specialist trainer with 15 years of experience in supporting people with Autism Spectrum Conditions. He currently works for a nationally recognised specialist […]
Circles South West is an independent charity that works to prevent sexual abuse by reducing the risk of sexual re-offending through its innovative community-based approach. As part of our sustainability […]
Our AGM was held on 12th September in Taunton to hear about our achievement of the previous year and enjoy presentations from some of our esteemed guests. The day began […]
Firstly, I had better tell you a little bit about me. I’ve been in prison twice for sexual offences and the second time was for an escalation in offences. However, […]
This year’s meeting will take place in Taunton on Thursday 12th September and we would be delighted to welcome anyone interested in our work. In 2018-19 we coordinated 55 Circles […]
We recommend that you read all about it here in our 2018-19 Annual Report CSW Annual Report 2018-19 Short on time? Take a whistle-stop tour of the main headlines and […]
Volunteers are the life blood of Circles South West and we regularly ask them to review our practices through their experience. It allows us to see where any improvements can […]
So what is the Volunteer Coordinator’s role within Circles South West? The Volunteer Coordinator role is really the first face of Circles South West. I’m the first contact that potential […]
Anna interviewed one of our Dorset volunteers who has participated in three Circles and talked about the purpose of Circles and the importance of the service provided. She also spoke […]
After 6 years Kate is off to pastures new. She will be sorely missed by both staff and volunteers alike. After training in the early 80s Kate worked as a […]
Determining the prevalence of female perpetrated sexual offending is difficult and has long been under-recognised and under-researched and remains the subject of much debate amongst academics. Historically, there has been […]
In 2016 CSW was awarded a 3 year grant by the National Lottery Community Fund to develop, establish and evaluate 3 new pilot projects, adapting the tried and tested Circles […]
It may come as no surprise to you that more women volunteer with us than men, by a majority of 3:1. We have always had an easier time attracting women […]
We are proud that a Circles South West Circle features prominently and are enormously grateful to the volunteers and core member who enabled this. We are grateful too, to the […]
The delegates arrived early as, unusually, the motorway seemed clear and smooth running. Everyone immediately entered into the spirit of cooperation and camaraderie and this atmosphere continued throughout the weekend. […]
The innovative risk management approach compliments and supports the work of public protection agencies, helping to facilitate the safe integration of people into the community. Recycling Lives, a social business […]
In the 6 months between May and November 2018 we coordinated 31 Circles across the region. This first chart shows those Circles by area. The second shows the those Circles […]
This has been very welcome news as Dorset was one of the original areas which fostered and promoted the work of Circles. Circles South West has always had a strong […]
It has been a turbulent year for our Dorset Project. When Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) match-funding for the half-time coordinator seconded by the National Probation Service (NPS) ceased in […]
“A wonderful review result… Well done on an excellent achievement! Riana Taylor, CEO, Circles UK, December 2018 The Review Report concluded that: “It is clear that CSW pride themselves on […]
In our December 2018 newsletter you can find out about: our multi-faceted and very successful Volunteer Conference the ‘shape’ of our work in 2018 our 2018 Dorset journey with new […]
This year we have been working with the company The Group of Seven to update our printed information, with them creating a unique template that we now are taking forward […]
