TFP’s new Supporters’ Programme

January 24, 2012

The Forgiveness Project has been fortunate to attract much recognition and praise over its eight years in existence but fundraising for the organisation isn’t easy, and never more so than in these financially challenging times.

Despite this work being hard to quantify and measure, we continue to receive a huge amount of evidence that demonstrates again and again that this work is transformative and changes lives. More than 500 visitors each day go to our website, and over 150,000 people have seen our exhibitions worldwide, all accessing resources that help resolve pain and conflict. Our award-winning RESTORE prison programme continues to help rehabilitate prisoners, and our schools’ resource, currently in production, will educate young people about peaceful solutions to conflict.

However, to continue this work we need your help. To assist us in what is a challenging time for fundraising, we have developed a tiered ‘Supporters Programme.’ The programme will invite those who wish to support us to pay an annual fee to become a Friend, Guardian or Ambassador of The Forgiveness Project.

There are three levels of support that people can sign up to, starting at £60 or US$96 per year (just £5 or $8 a month).

Become a Friend of The Forgiveness Project: £60 – £299 per year
Become a Guardian of The Forgiveness Project: £300 – £2999 per year
Become an Ambassador of The Forgiveness Project: £3000 + per year

(To use other currencies please go to http://www.xe.com/ucc/)

As a way of showing our sincere appreciation, everyone who signs up for the programme will be named on The Forgiveness Project website as a funder, as well as in our new literature, currently being written and produced. There will also be offers of discounted tickets to our events. For our Guardians and Ambassadors there will be special events, as well as the opportunity to offer strategic advice on the work of the charity, and the chance to participate in one of our award-winning prison workshops.

We know the work The Forgiveness Project does is transformative, and that every person who engages with the charity and its resources is moved and challenged. We are already fortunate to have a large amount of dedicated and wonderful supporters. If you wish to join the programme and contribute to this pioneering charity please contact simon@theforgivenessproject.com or click here.

Finally, we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all those who have helped fund our work since the project was founded in 2004.

Wishing all our friends and supporters a happy and peaceful 2012.

Marina

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Making it easy to Get Involved

January 11, 2012

The Forgiveness Project has made some important changes to the website. Crucially we have redesigned the Get Involved and Donate pages. Please take a moment to take a look around and see how much easier we have made it for you to literally get involved. As well as simply making a donation, you can join our new Supporters’ Programme, sponsor one of our projects or even host an event to raise money.

We’ve also added a feature on the Home page where you can keep up to date with the latest prison news and the Director’s blog. Our prison work remains a key part of the work we do at TFP and these regular updates (which will start soon) will report on the prisons where we’ve worked and how recent courses have gone.

Thank you for your continued support.

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UNPROVOKED at the Roundhouse

October 14, 2011

On 12 and 13th November 2011, The Forgiveness Project with support from the Metropolitan Police presented UNPROVOKED at The Roundhouse theatre in Camden. Written by Kathrine Smith and directed by Emily Momoh and Angus Scott-Miller, this short but powerful portrait of girl-on-girl knife crime was based on the experience of Mary Foley whose 15-year-old daughter was murdered by another girl at an East London party in 2005. The play examines the impact of teenage bullying, and traces the path of a bereaved mother’s journey towards reconciliation.

This is the first time The Forgiveness Project has been directly involved with dramatizing the story of someone like Mary – one of our real-life story-tellers who on numerous occasions has shared her journey in prisons and schools and opened up so many young people to the possibility of forgiveness and alternatives to violence.

The Roundhouse performance was Mary’s first chance to see the play and those of us who know her well were naturally anxious about how she would feel watching the story of her daughter’s murder unfold before her eyes, hearing her own words spoken so poignantly by actress Lorna Gayle. However,as Mary said: “as long as my experience and journey helps someone, then every tear and hurt is worth it and Charlotte’s death will not have been in vain.”

At the panel discussions afterwards, many members of the audience expressed a real desire to see UNPROVOKED used as a learning tool for groups at risk of gang and youth violence. With this in mind we are now working towards producing a DVD which we hope will be shown in prisons, schools and community settings.

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Clare Short asked the question can there be Forgiveness without Justice? The Forgiveness Project Annual Lecture 2011

October 13, 2011

On 6th October we held our second annual at Union Chapel, Islington to an audience of 500 people. The lecture ‘No Forgiveness Without Justice?’ was delivered by Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood 1983-2010 and Secretary of State for International Development 1997-2003.

Chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of The Independent, Clare Short’s lecture was preceded by three story-tellers – Colin Parry, who lost his son in the IRA Warrington bomb in 1993, and two speakers from The Forgiveness Project: Elizabeth Turner, whose husband was killed while at a business meeting in the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian whose 10-year-old daughter was killed by an Israeli soldier and who is a founding member of Combatants for Peace.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FORGIVENESS AND JUSTICE ON THE DIRECTOR’S BLOG

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