Over the last six months, we have been continuing our support of work focused on the justice system, and in particular, the wellbeing of people in prisons. We’ve been working closely with Samaritans to develop an evaluation piece for their work in prisons - this being their long-standing Listener Scheme and the more recent Postvention. People in prison are significantly more likely to die by suicide than people in the general population. Recent findings show that this risk is even higher for women. In full recognition of this, Samaritans have been running the Listener Scheme in UK prisons since the 1990s. It is, at its core, a peer-to-peer support scheme. People in prison are trained by Samaritans volunteers to provide confidential emotional support to their peers who are struggling to cope or are in distress. It is now operational in more than 110 prisons across the UK and Ireland, and is making a pivotal contribution to suicide prevention in prisons. In recent years, Samaritans have also introduced Postvention, which serves to support prisoners after a suicide, with the primary aim to minimise the impact of suicide on other prisoners and staff and, in turn, reduce other suicides. Read more about the Listener Scheme here: https://lnkd.in/eBJ3gnqa We’ve been working hard to develop an evaluation piece that enables Samaritans to evidence the impact of both of these schemes, and it has been a privilege to support such an important initiative. Thank you to the contributors from the Afterthought web: 🌱 Maya Sethi 🌱 Javel Watt 🌱 Millie Mensah 🌱 Dr. Otto Wolf ________________________________ Afterthought is a research studio for systemic change. We partner with changemakers to deliver participatory research that drives real-world impact.
Afterthought
Research Services
Research that lives where people do. We do social impact and community research.
About us
Afterthought is a research studio for systemic change. We partner with changemakers to deliver participatory research that drives real-world impact. We're a collaborative studio of independent impact researchers, strategists and facilitators, brought together to work on social impact and community research, ethically and with care. We exist to go further than any one person can alone. By working collaboratively, we’re able to take on larger, more complex projects while keeping the flexibility, depth and independence that individual researchers value. We work with organisations who want: ✧ insight that goes beyond surface opinion ✧ research that centres lived experience ✧ work that is rigorous, ethical and grounded in real life Rather than a fixed consultancy team, we assemble small, tailored-to-fit teams for each project. This means the right expertise for the work without unnecessary layers or diluted accountability. We’re building something that puts people, not process, at the heart of what we do.
- Website
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https://www.afterthought.space/
External link for Afterthought
- Industry
- Research Services
- Company size
- 2-10 employees
- Type
- Public Company
- Founded
- 2025
Employees at Afterthought
Updates
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It's been a big year for us at Afterthought, a year of growing, learning and actually doing. Starting up in today's climate is no small feat: AI and its increasingly felt impact amongst researchers, the desire for insights at speed rather than at depth, and the growing number of tuned-in researchers, facilitators and strategists hitting the freelance market due to aforementioned effects. Afterthought has been borne amidst this chaos, and in response to it. We [build/design/do] research that drives real change, facilitating lasting social impact, by building flexible, tailor-to-fit teams from our network of independent researchers, strategists and facilitators. Thanks to this year's partners, who've taken a gamble on us and jumped two feet first into our methodological commitment. We can't wait to see what's next ⋆.ೃ࿔*
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Introducing Afterthought: a research studio for systemic change. We've hit the ground running, and on Tuesday, in partnership with Dr. Otto Wolf, we delivered an Emergency Preparedness Workshop for Community Action Redbridge as part of a wider piece of work we are doing for them on resilience and emergency preparedness, funded by London Resilience. It was a privilege to share the space with Community Action Redbridge members, who really leaned into the space and gave us great insight into the emergencies facing communities in Redbridge, and how best organisations can support them. We got feedback that the workshop felt safe, welcoming and supportive – despite the challenging topics we discussed – and really, what more could we have asked for(!) Looking forward to speaking to some more members of Community Action Redbridge in greater depth next week, helping to feed into our final reporting on emergency preparedness in Redbridge. Much more to come from us ⋆.ೃ࿔*
I am still massively vibing from Tuesday’s Redbridge London Resilience Emergency Preparedness workshop with my amazing Afterthought consultancy colleagues for so many reasons! 🫶 1. We brought a group of Community Action Redbridge members together who represented those most vulnerable in emergencies (any - from a heatwave to a far-right rally, to a pandemic) and they were so engaged and collaborative 💞 2. We talked about some really difficult challenges; heartbreaking stories about local elder racist abuse, homophobic attacks, county lines grooming of young people, desperate lonliness during the pandemic and so on… BUT, we also talked about how we can meet these challenges in future better together. It felt like we were gaining strength as a group. It felt like hope. 3. We planned changes we can make NOW to how we collaborate and raise each other’s voices. For example, members are going to feed into each other’s networks on a strategic level. Those who sit on statutory boards will raise issues that others don’t feel safe to raise. This is powerful. 4. I acknowledged that we were three white people convening a group of majority people of colour and gave people anonymous avenues to speak to my colleagues of colour if there were any issues at all. Three women came up to me at the end and said they’d felt really safe and seen in the space, and spoken more than they had before in any forum. This meant the absolute world to me. 5. Despite us spending 2.5 hours discussing frankly distressing things, the energy at the end was hopeful and happy, and that is why I do what I do, and why I am so very grateful for the privilege of having this job. #hope #communitydevelopment #communitywork #gla #emergencypreparedness #communityresilience #useyourprivilegeforgood Imogen Bullen-Smith Dr. Otto Wolf Cliff Fleming Jenny Ellis
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