New Bridge Foundation

The New Bridge Foundation is a charity which was founded in 1956 with the intention of using volunteers to support people in prison to resettle back into the community after release, by prominent prison reformer Lord Longford.  Over the years we have run a variety of additional projects to support people to this end, including Through The Gate programmes and family support programmes.  However our core offering since our inception has been a befriending service delivered by volunteers, which we continue to run today.  For over 65 years, our volunteers have offered a bridge to the outside world to people serving prison sentences across England and Wales by offering non-judgemental social contact to some of the most isolated and vulnerable in our society. 

We are proud to have Michael Spurr, CB (former CEO, HMPPS) as our President, and Professor David Wilson (criminologist, author and former prison governor) and Jonathan Aitken as our Vice Presidents, as well as a royal patron in HRH Princess Alexandra. 

Our vision: Every person in prison feels a meaningful connection to the outside world.

Our mission: We match people in prisons with trained volunteers who offer long-term support through a combination of correspondence and visits.  This provides people in prison with a bridge to the outside world, along with an increased sense of value and potential for their future.

Our values:

-          Non-judgemental: we believe every person has value

-          Inclusive: we accept applications from any person in prison, and any volunteer who shares our values

-          Independent: we are wholly separate from and not influenced by the criminal justice system

-          Prisoner-led: our volunteers shape their support, correspondence and visits around the needs of the person they support

-          Constant: we provide a reliable connection between those inside and outside prison