Spark Inside appoints a Head of Programmes

Spark Inside is a pioneering, innovative charity that runs coaching programmes in prisons across London and the South East to encourage rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. It is one of the first organisations to take life coaching to 15- to 25-year-old boys and men, and to use systems coaching to bring together prison officers and prisoners.

Spark Inside partnered with Society to appoint a new Head of Programmes to ensure its coaching programmes in prisons are well run and high quality. The role will also drive Spark Inside’s plans to extend its coaching into the community, to further customise its coaching offer and to build the reach of its programmes beyond London and the South East.  

Spark Inside were keen for us to look more broadly than just the charity sector, so we focused on speaking to individuals who demonstrated innovative programmatic work with substantial knowledge of the criminal justice system.

Dr Karen Graham joins from Manchester Metropolitan University where she was a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education. Making the move from academia into the not-for-profit sector, Karen demonstrated deep insights and connectivity across the criminal justice sector gained through both her academic research and projects, and former role as a prison educator.