Speakers
Hilton Freund MBE
Plenary Session
For the last seven years, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Greenwich have partnered with the Twinning Project for one of the largest evaluations of a sport-based correctional intervention ever undertaken. The findings demonstrate that meaningful social bonds, created through educational programmes with professional football clubs, can significantly improve prison behaviour, increase optimism about life after release and enhance wellbeing. In this joint presentation, behavioural scientist Dr Martha Newson will explain the science behind social identity, belonging and behaviour change, revealing why traditional interventions often fail to create lasting change. Hilton Freund MBE, the Twinning Project’s CEO, will then demonstrate the practice underlying the findings. He’ll share practical evidence for upscaling, through the Twinning Project’s partnerships with more than 70 professional sports organisations across the UK and expansion to multiple sports and international roll-out across 5 continents. Combining rigorous academic evidence with practical implementation, this session will provide correctional leaders with a blueprint for building scalable partnerships rooted in belonging that improve institutional culture, prisoner wellbeing and community reintegration.
Awarded an MBE by King Charles III in 2024 for services to criminal justice and charity, Hilton Freund is the Global Chief Executive Officer of the Twinning Project and a leading advocate for the use of professional sport as a powerful tool for rehabilitation and positive change.
Under Hilton’s leadership, the Twinning Project has grown from a pioneering UK initiative into an increasingly international programme, bringing professional sports organisations together with prisons, correctional agencies and juvenile justice systems to support rehabilitation, education, employability and successful reintegration.
Hilton has led the development of partnerships across the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia, working with some of the world’s most recognised professional sports organisations alongside national, state and local government and correctional authorities. Central to this work is the belief that sport has a unique ability to engage people who can be difficult to reach through more traditional interventions, creating a platform through which skills, confidence, wellbeing and a sense of belonging can be developed.
A key focus of Hilton’s leadership has been ensuring that the Twinning Project is not simply built around the power of sport, but supported by academic research and evidence.
Hilton continues to champion collaboration between sport, government, academia and criminal justice, with the ambition of demonstrating how innovative partnerships can improve outcomes for people in custody, support successful reintegration and ultimately contribute to safer communities around the world.
