Jericho Road Project works with women affected  by the sex industry. This project is an opportunity for women to explore their stories through art. We run a successful programme called 'Create: New Beginnings', which engages with emotions and wellbeing through art. We wanted to provide further opportunities for women to use art to speak to themselves and others. After the initial sessions in prison we plan to run the sessions in community. We will give women opportunity to share their art and stories during an exhibition.
 
Who we are:

Jericho Road Project aims to show Jesus’ love and hope to women affected by the sex industry in Nottingham. We work in a holistic and person centred way with women experiencing severe multiple deprivation. Across Nottinghamshire we have strong working relationships with other professionals and agencies. The project has been running for 25 years, started by a local vicar and his wife who met the women, wanted to help and for them to know their value and worth. It is now a registered charity with 7 members of staff and over 70 volunteers from at least 25 churches in Nottingham.

Our work covers a number of projects which allows us to bring consistency and reliability to the women. We have a street outreach up to 3 evenings a week in the Red Light District of Nottingham. Our drop in is open twice a week, where we have food, clothing and the opportunity for a bath. We further support on a one to one basis with goals women identify, perhaps supporting to appointments or meeting for a coffee and emotional support. After a request from a woman to visit we began working in the local prison. We now have a strong working relationship with the local women’s prison. We run bible studies once a week, visit on the wings and every fortnight have one to one resettlement appointments planning for release. Twice a year we run a course called Create:New Beginnings, gifted to us by Prison Fellowship in the USA, it is an art base programme which explores emotions and wellbeing through the lens of faith. 

Our project- Beautifully  Made

We have seen women benefit from the art programme, building in confidence and understanding of themselves. They particularly comment that they enjoy the chance to use art to express themselves and want opportunities to continue this. For women who are often hidden and unseen we wanted the opportunity to hear their voices and stories, for themselves, Jericho Road Project and our community.

We will start our sessions in prison, using the success of the art programme already in place. We plan to run 3 sessions to give time to explore ideas and produce art. We hope to then take these sessions into community and work with more women. At the end of the programme we will share these pieces of art and their stories through an exhibition and other opportunities.