In this blog I hope to give some reflections and thoughts on the first six months I’ve been in post. Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Dermot and I’m a Family Engagement Worker at HMP Swansea. Before coming here I worked in a solicitors firm, helping with benefits appeals over the phone. Life now is very different to the office job I had last year.
When I remember the first few days with Pact, the main memory is of the crippling fear I had when I first walked through the gates at HMP Cardiff for our induction week. It was at that moment that I realised that I would be working in a prison, with all the gates, bars, locks, high walls, barbed wire, cells and prisoners. I feared I’d made a terrible mistake.
Fortunately those fears didn’t last long.
By the end of the induction week, the Pact Cymru team already felt like old friends and it was strange going to Swansea the following Monday without the Cardiff workers.
Not through choice, I dedicated a significant amount of time in the first couple of months to getting lost in HMP Swansea. The Senior Family Engagement Worker at Swansea, Trish, was forced to demonstrate remarkable patience as I bombarded her with thousands of questions about the regime. A personal low point came when I spent ten minutes stood in the rain trying to unlock a door that was already open.
It seems strange now looking back and realising how much we have achieved since those first few weeks. We’ve put on family days, made loads of Storybook Dads recordings and carried on with the Baby Group at Swansea. It’s even been a month since I last got lost.
Just before Christmas, we ran ‘Building Stronger Families’, a relationship course, for the first time. Trish, an experienced pro at facilitating courses, gave me a gentle introduction to course facilitation and I’m looking forward to taking a more active role when we start a new course next week.
The past six months have been hectic. I hope that the next six are just as fun.
Dermot Dooley
Family Engagement Worker, HMP Swansea
pactcymru 