We are delighted to announce that Shannon Trust has received a second, generous grant of £500,000 from The Julia Rausing Trust, supporting our work for a further three years.
Daniel Chapman, Head of Grants at The Julia Rausing Trust, said: “We are pleased to renew our support to the Shannon Trust. By empowering individuals with essential skills such as reading and writing, we are helping to create stronger pathways to rehabilitation. Today’s grant builds on Julia’s previous support and will extend these vital opportunities to even more people, fostering hope and positive change in their lives.”
Due to their generosity, over the last few years our reach and impact have grown significantly, and thousands more people in prison have had the opportunity to change their lives through learning to read and improving their numeracy skills.
In 2024 alone, over 11,000 learners engaged with Shannon Trust’s programmes across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and we were able to train over 2000 new mentors.
“It has been so impactful working with The Julia Rausing Trust (previously The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust). Their generous funding has enabled us to transform the lives of many more people in need of support with reading and other basic skills,” says Chris Morgan, Director of Business Support at Shannon Trust.
Other key achievements that were made possible due to the substantial funding include developing our learning programmes and resources, improving the way we report and capture data, and building strategic partnerships in the community space to support people leaving prison continue their learning.
With this renewed funding for another three years, Shannon Trust will be able to increase the reach and accessibility of our peer-led programmes even more. This includes making digital versions of our programmes widely accessible, branching out even further into communities and maximising our reach across the prison population. This will ensure we can continue our work towards a vision of a world in which no one is left out of learning.
“Thanks to the generous support from organisations like The Julia Rausing Trust, we are able to continue making a real difference to people in prison, their families and the wider community,” says Chris.
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