Our history...

Farida Anderson MBE (POPS' Chief Executive Officer) established the charity in 1988, recognising there was no formal support for offenders' families. POPS provides support to offenders’ families, who are so often labeled 'GUILTY by association', to help them cope with the stress and isolation they can feel when trying to support an offender.

POPS has grown tremendously since our early days of supporting a hand full of families. We now support over 250,000 families a year and employ almost 100 staff and 30 volunteers.

Our staff…

POPS is fortunate to have a team of highly dedicated, experienced and qualified people on its staff. We pride our self in having an extremely diverse work force, which reflects the people that we work with and provide a service to. We believe that this demonstrates our commitment to equal opportunities in its most practical form and enables us to celebrate diversity and understand the specific needs of offenders and their families.

Our Board of Directors…

The make-up of our Board of Directors is extremely varied. We currently have board members with legal, criminal justice system, financial, education backgrounds and members of our own beneficiary group.

Our Volunteers…

POPS value all people involved in helping us to provide our service, especially our bank of volunteers. Volunteers give their time up for a number of reasons and we believe that all volunteers at POPS should receive the same investment we give to our paid staff team. Our volunteers are made up of ex and current beneficiaries, university students, people have no (recent) work experience, who are looking to get future paid work and much more.

Who we influence…

In addition to our Core Services and Projects POPS influences an array of difference policy forums on a local, regional and national capacity. For example we are involved, and an advisory capacity on the following strategic boards/meeting groups: -

• NOMS Advisory Group
• Alliance for Reducing Re-offending
• HM Prison Service Race Action Group
• HM Prison Service Performance Management Board
• IMPACT Strategic Board
• IMPACT Ascend Project
• North West Reducing Re-offending Action Plans’ Pathway for Children, Families and Community
• Manchester City Council’s and Salford City Councils’ Reducing Re-offending Strategies for Children and Families
• Manchester’s Community Safety Network

Our Strategy…

All POPS’ departments work towards a common goal that is directed by our Corporate Business Plans, the current external political environment and, most importantly, the needs of our beneficiaries. Each Corporate Buisness Plan is developed in consultation with our staff, volunteers and beneficiary group.