Savi Uppal

Only Connect is London's creative criminal justice charity. Our vision is a more connected society where we all choose a crime free life. The focus of our work is innovation to reduce re-offending. We work with Londoners aged 16+ with recent experience of the criminal justice system, equipping them with the necessary skills, attributes and positive networks to develop and pursue their life goals without harm. We believe in the idea of 'Handshake, not Handout'​. This means our Members are enabled to design and deliver solutions to their own problems, and problems faced by other Members and their peers across London. We aim to equip a generation of people with the resilience and skills to address the challenges they face, and become positive agents for change in their communities – ‘assets’ not ‘liabilities’ for London. We achieve impact in two ways. Firstly, we work in four Londons prisons and across youth justice services in the capital. We worked with nearly 300 people in custody during 2016. Secondly, we provide ex-offenders with Membership of one of our centres in central and west London. Members are able to access creative projects, build new skills and positive relationships, and grow their confidence. Our Membership model offers one single, seamless relationship from custody to community and into education, training and employment (ETE). In 2016 we worked with 147 Members, progressing 63 into ETE.