The Path project is an educational and career-based project launched by Therapeutic productions which we have designed to promote and highlight the availability of lived experience careers and job roles as well as provide insight on how to access these career paths and secure this category of job.
Our project is driven by a need to open more doors to those who come out of the mental health and criminal justice systems. We define lived experience as when someone has directly experienced a particular social issue. Over the last 10 years national funders, the NHS and criminal justice agencies have been targetting resources and creating thousands of jobs in this field across the UK. However there remains a lack of widspread awareness of how to enter these employment paths among those in prisons and hospitals.
Project ‘The Path’ aims to provide advice and guidance that highlights lived experience work and provide knowledge on how to access this type of work, targeting those in mental health and criminal justice services. Through workshop delivery, resource creation and media campaigns we are promoting and bringing exposure to this path to employment as a means of equipping individuals who were unaware of this type of work with guidance on how to pursue this path if they wish to.
Project components
Workshop delivery
We are delivering workshops across prisons and hospitals reaching inmates and service users so that we can share insight on:
- Lived experience Job types and roles
- Qualifications and experience needed for different types of roles
- Different job application processes
- Job expectations if you secure a role
- Training courses and where to access live opportunities
We have partnered with a number of trusts and groups to deliver this.
Web resources
We are glad to present one of the only centrailsed jobs resources in the UK for those who have come out of the criminal justice and mental health systems and wish to pursue a career using there life experiences to work in these fields:
Job types and roles
https://livedexperiences.therapeuticproductions.org/resources/job-types-and-roles/
Jobs board
https://livedexperiences.therapeuticproductions.org/opportunities/job-board/
Course board
https://livedexperiences.therapeuticproductions.org/opportunities/training-providers/
This online resource gives advice and guidance on how to access over 17 roles, including the route to employment, how best to secure these opportunities and video content featuring interviews with those who work in these fields. We have also provided access to over 40 training courses and live job vacancies people can apply for. This will be increased in the months ahead.