Fine Cell Work
The Fine Cell Work Team
Patrons
Libby Purves OBE
The Right Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Kaffe Fassett
Sir David Ramsbotham
President
Lady Anne Tree was a prison visitor for twenty-five years, entertainments officer at HMP Wandsworth and a prison inspector, she founded Fine Cell Work and continues to contribute her wisdom and support to the charity.
Chair
Jean Gomm has extensive senior executive experience in the corporate sector, international organisations and non-profit organisations. She has over 25 years of senior level strategy and development responsibilities at the OECD in Paris and is also experienced in small company management, particularly in the creative industries, and is a Director of T. Gosling Ltd and Chair of Maggie and Rose Ltd. She is the President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of London; a Trustee of the British Friends of Harvard Business School and the Ealing Community Resource Centre; and a member of the Development Committees of the Microloan Foundation’s Micro-venture Committee and Rights and Humanity.
Vice Chair
Selina Fellows is a retail consultant who works in the cultural sector.
Board of Trustees
Anthony Gater has worked in economic development at home and abroad, for government and for charity.
Sandy Jones is a leading international rug designer.
Sophie Kingsley is a former Director of Human Resources at Barclays Capital.
Janet Dunlop is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in the private equity industry for seventeen years. She is currently Chief Operating Officer of Lion Capital
Melissa Wyndham is one of Britain's most prominent interior designers.
The charity could not operate without the generous and ongoing support it receives from its funders the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Westminster Foundation, the Clore Duffield Foundation, the Triangle trust, the Pilgrim Trust, the Band Trust and the Michael Varah Trust.
The Fine Cell Work office team are:
Executive Director
Dr. Katy Emck worked as an academic and journalist and for another prison charity, Geese Theatre Company, before joining Fine Cell Work. Katy has been working with prisoners for almost 20 years and has helped the charity grow and prosper immensely since her arrival in 1997.
Design Consultant
Polly Scott Bolton advises the charity on many aspects of design. She has a degree in Textile Design and has worked in charitable textile projects in the UK and India. Polly's experienced eye and careful approach to design enables her to source materials, devise fresh and exciting new products.
Sales and Website Manager
Rebecca Mistry joined FCW after a career as a Literary Agent. She is enjoying the challenge of marketing our work and is looking to continue to build the charity's profile and international sales through our website.
Production Manager
Philippa Hislop is our prisons materials co-ordinator, a vital role that ensures the FCW products are sent to the right prisons and volunteer teachers are equipped. She also ensures that the prisoner's work is recorded once returned and that the stitchers are supplied with kits and various materials - no mean feat when working with almost 300 prisoners! Philippa, who has worked as a senior administrator in various companies for many years works part time for Fine Cell Work.
Workshop and Commissions Co-ordinator
Hilda Sheppard
Hilda joined us in Feb 07 and will work both in our London office and at our textiles workshop at HMP Wandsworth. She has wonderful experience in tapestry work having previously worked at specialist needlepoint shop Tapisserie, Hilda was is Royal School of Needlework trained and she will be taking on responsibility for our special commissions work.
Administrator - Office & Events
Elena Hall
Elena deals with the administrative side of things at Fine Cell Work as well as helping to co-ordinate the large number of events the charity has up and down the country. She has worked in a number of charities in the UK including Breast Cancer Care and Autism London and has also carried out charitable work in South America, including teaching crafts to children in Mexico.
We could not operate of course without the wonderful help, skill and expertise of our volunteers. They are heroines, showing patience and tact. We would be nowhere without them.
Outside the immediate Fine Cell Work team, we are exceedingly grateful to the multitude of prisoners, prison staff, funders, suppliers, supporters and everyone else who helps us to achieve so much.
Patrons
Libby Purves OBE
The Right Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Kaffe Fassett
Sir David Ramsbotham
President
Lady Anne Tree was a prison visitor for twenty-five years, entertainments officer at HMP Wandsworth and a prison inspector, she founded Fine Cell Work and continues to contribute her wisdom and support to the charity.
Chair
Jean Gomm has extensive senior executive experience in the corporate sector, international organisations and non-profit organisations. She has over 25 years of senior level strategy and development responsibilities at the OECD in Paris and is also experienced in small company management, particularly in the creative industries, and is a Director of T. Gosling Ltd and Chair of Maggie and Rose Ltd. She is the President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of London; a Trustee of the British Friends of Harvard Business School and the Ealing Community Resource Centre; and a member of the Development Committees of the Microloan Foundation’s Micro-venture Committee and Rights and Humanity.
Vice Chair
Selina Fellows is a retail consultant who works in the cultural sector.
Board of Trustees
Anthony Gater has worked in economic development at home and abroad, for government and for charity.
Sandy Jones is a leading international rug designer.
Sophie Kingsley is a former Director of Human Resources at Barclays Capital.
Janet Dunlop is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in the private equity industry for seventeen years. She is currently Chief Operating Officer of Lion Capital
Melissa Wyndham is one of Britain's most prominent interior designers.
The charity could not operate without the generous and ongoing support it receives from its funders the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Westminster Foundation, the Clore Duffield Foundation, the Triangle trust, the Pilgrim Trust, the Band Trust and the Michael Varah Trust.
The Fine Cell Work office team are:
Executive Director
Dr. Katy Emck worked as an academic and journalist and for another prison charity, Geese Theatre Company, before joining Fine Cell Work. Katy has been working with prisoners for almost 20 years and has helped the charity grow and prosper immensely since her arrival in 1997.
Design Consultant
Polly Scott Bolton advises the charity on many aspects of design. She has a degree in Textile Design and has worked in charitable textile projects in the UK and India. Polly's experienced eye and careful approach to design enables her to source materials, devise fresh and exciting new products.
Sales and Website Manager
Rebecca Mistry joined FCW after a career as a Literary Agent. She is enjoying the challenge of marketing our work and is looking to continue to build the charity's profile and international sales through our website.
Production Manager
Philippa Hislop is our prisons materials co-ordinator, a vital role that ensures the FCW products are sent to the right prisons and volunteer teachers are equipped. She also ensures that the prisoner's work is recorded once returned and that the stitchers are supplied with kits and various materials - no mean feat when working with almost 300 prisoners! Philippa, who has worked as a senior administrator in various companies for many years works part time for Fine Cell Work.
Workshop and Commissions Co-ordinator
Hilda Sheppard
Hilda joined us in Feb 07 and will work both in our London office and at our textiles workshop at HMP Wandsworth. She has wonderful experience in tapestry work having previously worked at specialist needlepoint shop Tapisserie, Hilda was is Royal School of Needlework trained and she will be taking on responsibility for our special commissions work.
Administrator - Office & Events
Elena Hall
Elena deals with the administrative side of things at Fine Cell Work as well as helping to co-ordinate the large number of events the charity has up and down the country. She has worked in a number of charities in the UK including Breast Cancer Care and Autism London and has also carried out charitable work in South America, including teaching crafts to children in Mexico.
We could not operate of course without the wonderful help, skill and expertise of our volunteers. They are heroines, showing patience and tact. We would be nowhere without them.
Outside the immediate Fine Cell Work team, we are exceedingly grateful to the multitude of prisoners, prison staff, funders, suppliers, supporters and everyone else who helps us to achieve so much.
What is the idea of Fine Cell Work?
Perfection is not usually what's expected in prisons. Inmate, HMP Wandsworth
Fine Cell Work is a Registered Charity that teaches needlework to prison inmates and sells their products. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence.
Savings reduce the likelihood of offenders returning to crime. Prisoners often send the money they earn from Fine Cell Work to their children and families, or use it to pay debts or for accommodation upon release.
The inmates are all instructed by volunteers, many of whom have been taught at the Embroiderer's Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the world of professional design. Once trained, they can be responsible for difficult commissions done to deadlines, and support other inmates who are still learning.
Perfection is not usually what's expected in prisons. Inmate, HMP Wandsworth
Fine Cell Work is a Registered Charity that teaches needlework to prison inmates and sells their products. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence.
Savings reduce the likelihood of offenders returning to crime. Prisoners often send the money they earn from Fine Cell Work to their children and families, or use it to pay debts or for accommodation upon release.
The inmates are all instructed by volunteers, many of whom have been taught at the Embroiderer's Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the world of professional design. Once trained, they can be responsible for difficult commissions done to deadlines, and support other inmates who are still learning.
History
The charity was founded by Lady Anne Tree, who first had the idea in the 1960's when she was a prison visitor at HMP Holloway. With the help of the Royal School of Needlework she enabled two lifers to make needlepoint carpets which were then sold as collectors items in New York. However, in those days the prisoners were not allowed to receive money for the work. This determined Lady Anne to establish an organisation in which prisoners could learn a skill to the highest level and be paid for their efforts.
Fine Cell Work today aims to show that prison work can be the best on offer and to enable prison inmates to help themselves by selling their work to the general public.
It's one of the few things done in prison that has a purpose, is creative, constructive and has a point. Every canvas is a challenge, some more than others. It also helps me with to earn money to buy stamps and phone cards as prison wages don't go too far. Inmate, SPS Peterhead
The charity was founded by Lady Anne Tree, who first had the idea in the 1960's when she was a prison visitor at HMP Holloway. With the help of the Royal School of Needlework she enabled two lifers to make needlepoint carpets which were then sold as collectors items in New York. However, in those days the prisoners were not allowed to receive money for the work. This determined Lady Anne to establish an organisation in which prisoners could learn a skill to the highest level and be paid for their efforts.
Fine Cell Work today aims to show that prison work can be the best on offer and to enable prison inmates to help themselves by selling their work to the general public.
It's one of the few things done in prison that has a purpose, is creative, constructive and has a point. Every canvas is a challenge, some more than others. It also helps me with to earn money to buy stamps and phone cards as prison wages don't go too far. Inmate, SPS Peterhead
Facts and Figures
Fine Cell Work gives these men dignity in work and through this, dignity in life. When a man gains self-respect he may see his way to addressing his offending behaviour - Officer, HMP Wandsworth
- In 2008 Fine Cell Workers hand-stitched a total of 1,222 items.
- In the same year, 350 inmates earned a total of £61,890
- Two thirds of the stitchers are men
- We work in 26 prisons in England and Scotland
- The inmates are taught by 45 volunteer instructors
Fine Cell Work gives these men dignity in work and through this, dignity in life. When a man gains self-respect he may see his way to addressing his offending behaviour - Officer, HMP Wandsworth
The Future
In the future, we aim to work with as many inmates as wish to participate, establishing a tradition of skilled craftwork in prisons.
Fine Cell Work belongs, above all, to the inmates who do the work.
It opens up another world, one that in many ways is long-forgotten. It is reinventing the craftsmanship of yesteryear. Then there is the pride and usefulness in seeing something of beauty come together, and the thought that my and my friends' cell work will bring pleasure, now and hopefully long into the future, to the recipient. It allows us to once again do and start something new and be useful. Inmate, HMP Wandsworth
In the future, we aim to work with as many inmates as wish to participate, establishing a tradition of skilled craftwork in prisons.
Fine Cell Work belongs, above all, to the inmates who do the work.
It opens up another world, one that in many ways is long-forgotten. It is reinventing the craftsmanship of yesteryear. Then there is the pride and usefulness in seeing something of beauty come together, and the thought that my and my friends' cell work will bring pleasure, now and hopefully long into the future, to the recipient. It allows us to once again do and start something new and be useful. Inmate, HMP Wandsworth