Date and Time
17 September 2025
- 7:00 AM EDT New York
- 12:00 PM London
- 7:00 PM Singapore
- 9.00 PM Sydney
This webinar provides insights into three volunteering program in different stages of the life cycle: early start, thriving for creating a model and performing/consolidating within corrections contexts: prison, probation and community. The webinar offers three presentations from Singapore, the European Union (EU) and the USA:
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Singapore’s “Volunteer Case Officer” program was launched 2 years ago to provide aftercare support to supervisees.
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EU’s CoPPer Project https://www.copper-initiative.com/ represented by the Portuguese probation case study.
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USA’s Safer Foundation, an NGO with many years of experience working with inmates in prison and following through in the aftercare.
Moderators
Tiago Leitão
Jean Chiang
Speakers
Pioneering Volunteer Management in Community Corrections: The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) Volunteer Case Officer (VCO) Scheme
Serene Low
The Singapore Prison Service's Volunteer Case Officer (VCO) scheme, launched in February 2023, offers valuable insights into establishing a volunteer programme within corrections. This presentation examines critical early phase opportunities and challenges, which include recruiting volunteers to work with persons undergoing post-incarceration supervision, building a data management system, designing training curricula, maintaining meaningful volunteer engagement, and effectively communicating changes in policies. We approached these areas strategically by leveraging ecosystem strengths and technological advances, while maintaining warm and open communication channels. At our two-year mark, the VCO Engagement and Satisfaction Survey revealed encouraging outcomes: nearly 70% of volunteers expressed satisfaction with their roles, and 80% indicated their desire to continue volunteering. These results affirm the promising development of our volunteer management approach. The presentation will share practical suggestions for corrections agencies that may be navigating the management of similar volunteer programmes.
Volunteerism: An Added Touch of Care and A Critical Resource Within the Population of Justice-Involved Individuals
Andre D. Martin
The mission of Safer Foundation is to reduce recidivism by supporting individuals with criminal records in becoming productive, law-abiding members of the community. For many years, Safer Foundation in partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections, has utilized the services provided by volunteers to enhance engagement of individuals within the correctional setting and beyond. The roles of volunteers vary widely and are impacted by elements such as types of correctional settings, programmatic structures, population demographics, security levels and many others. Realizing that the work of volunteers has the potential to drastically impact the reentry process for justice involved individuals, Safer Foundation has integrated volunteerism into reentry services offered on multiple platforms that extend beyond correctional institutions. This presentation will discuss how Safer utilizes volunteers to assists individuals with job preparedness and placement, and educational and behavioral health services, as well as substance abuse treatment.
From Vision to Practice: Implementing the CoPPer Project in the Portuguese Probation System
Ana Cristina Neves
The CoPPer Project (Cooperation to Promote a European Volunteering Programme in Probation Services) aims to promote active engagement of citizens, civil society and social partners in the social inclusion of people who commit crimes, by enhancing the role of volunteering within probation systems across Europe. The project brings together European partners to develop a coherent framework that promotes best practices, training, and integration of volunteers into probation work. In Portugal, the CoPPer Project has played a key role in advancing volunteering within probation services. This presentation outlines the Project’s objectives, methodology and outcomes. Emphasis will be placed on cross-country collaboration, knowledge exchange and the creation of sustainable models for volunteer engagement that respect national contexts, while advancing shared European values. The case of the Portuguese probation service will be presented as a practical illustration of how the Project's results have been implemented and how they are expected to be scaled up in the near future.
Registration
As an ICPA member, you can attend our webinars at no additional cost. New registrants will receive a complimentary annual Full ICPA Membership when registering at full price. You will receive a confirmation email upon registration. Shortly before the event, you will receive a Zoom link via email.
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