Service provided by Anawim Birmingham Centre for Women
Alternatives Plus
Alternatives Plus allows female offenders to complete their sentences in the community as opposed to prison. For women who have a history of offending and experience of custody and/or prison, we can provide rehabilitative alternatives to custody at the Anawim centre, enabling women to remain in their homes, keep their lives together and address the deeper and more complex issues which have driven them to offend.
We support women with their community orders, suspended sentences and women who are on license. The National Probation Service (NPS) refer women over to Anawim and work with us to manage this cohort. We are working hard to promote this new service through the NPS, at court and are working closely with our Prison team to generate referrals.
Women on Alternatives Plus work with our Criminal Justice Caseworkers. The caseworkers offer targeted interventions for every woman, using a trauma-informed approach, working in a solution focused way with compassion and empathy. All women using Alternatives Plus can also benefit from courses on offer at Anawim, accessing specialised tools and developing techniques to deal with the effects of trauma in a healthy way, take responsibility and challenge their self-limiting thinking.