Aim

Help reduce rates of reoffending and support individuals during a challenging time in their lives.

“Walk With Someone Until They Can Walk Alone.”

Fresh Start is a lived‑experience mentoring and advocacy service led by people who understand the realities of the criminal justice system first‑hand. Several members of our team bring their own lived experience into the work, and that insight shapes the empathy, honesty and credibility of our support. We work with people in prison, as they prepare for release and as they rebuild their lives back in the community.

We operate predominantly across East Anglia including Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire but our support does not stop at regional borders. We also work with clients across the UK, ensuring that anyone who needs guidance, encouragement or a steady hand has access to it. At every stage, our aim is simple: to walk alongside people with dignity, belief and genuine human connection.

The People Behind Fresh Start

Fresh Start is built on people, not processes. Our team brings together a blend of lived experience, professional expertise and genuine compassion.

• Peer Mentors who bring lived experience, credibility and hope.
• Case Workers who help people navigate housing, employment, health and the everyday challenges of rebuilding a life.
• Educators and Facilitators who deliver behaviour‑change learning, build confidence, and help clients become work‑ready supporting them to gain the skills, mindset and stability needed to secure and sustain employment.
• Volunteers who offer time, compassion and steady encouragement.
• Partners in prisons, probation and community services who trust us to support people at their most vulnerable moments.

Everyone involved shares one belief: no one should be defined by their past everyone deserves a chance to build a future.

What We are Trying to Achieve

Our mission is grounded in humanity and practical support:

• Reduce reoffending by addressing the real issues of trauma, homelessness, addiction, isolation, lack of opportunity.
• Support people in prison to prepare for release with purpose, structure and a sense of possibility.
• Help people reintegrate safely and successfully, reconnecting with family, work, community and identity.
• Equip people with the skills and confidence to enter and sustain employment, creating long‑term stability.
• Create safer, stronger communities with fewer victims of crime.
• Champion lived experience as a powerful force for change.

We don’t “fix” people. We walk with them until they can walk on their own.

Voices From Our Community

“Fresh Start didn’t judge me. They saw the person I could be, not the person I’d been.” Service User, HMP Norwich

“Being a volunteer has changed me as much as it’s changed the people I support.” Volunteer Mentor

“Their lived‑experience model works. People trust them and that trust leads to real progress.” Probation Practitioner, Suffolk

We are looking for people who believe in second chances and want to make a real difference. As a Fresh Start volunteer, you will walk alongside people in prison, preparing for release and rebuilding their lives in the community across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and sometimes across the UK. You do not need qualifications or lived experience; you just need empathy, reliability and the willingness to show up for someone who is trying to change their future. 

Be the reason someone keeps going.

Your time. Their turning point.

Second chances need people like you.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made