WeMakeMedia™

The Brief

Toe By Toe is a peer mentoring scheme which enables prisoners with reading skills to teach other prisoners who cannot read well, or who cannot read at all – of which there are over 50,000 at any one time.

Awareness of the Toe By Toe scheme within the prison system is not as good as it could be. The majority of information available to prisoners is in the form of posters or other written literature, which is of no use to those who are illiterate.

By creating a short introductory film which prisoners can watch when they are inducted into the prison system, it’s hoped that more people will be made aware of the help available to them, and take up the opportunity to become readers.

A longer, more involved documentary, will be used to promote the work of the Trust.

Our Solution

Before filming, we spent time meeting with Shannon Trust volunteers and prisoners at HMP Garth, to really get to grips with how the scheme works, and to hear first hand about how it can change peoples lives.

It was clear from the outset, that the prisoners themselves should have the opportunity to tell their own stories – not only would that make the films more accessible to other prisoners, but it would allow us to explore all aspects of the scheme, how it fits into prison life, and what benefits it brings to those who are involved.

We spent a day filming inside HMP Garth, a category B prison, interviewing a number of prisoners, volunteers and prison staff. We then edited a 4 minute film which is intended to be made available at all the prisons which run the scheme. An 11-minute film was also produced, which explains in more detail how the scheme works, the benefits it provides, and how it has impacted upon peoples lives.