What We Do

Margaret Carey Foundation (MCF) promotes restorative justice in prisons. 

  • delivers community and prison-based work projects
  • ensures prison trainees pay back and make amends to society as they serve their sentences
  • benefits the environment by recycling unwanted items
  • helps communities in need, at home and abroad

How We Do It

We rescue scrapped bicycles and wheelchairs that are no longer in use and set up workshops where prisoners clean, adjust and repair them to a high standard. We then give all the refurbished wheelchairs and a proportion of the bikes to communities in need, in the UK and in developing countries.

In this way, prisoners work to make life easier and better for disadvantaged people. At the same time as helping others, offenders learn to develop a positive work ethic, gain useful skills and become better prepared for employment after release.

Projects

Each project is a partnership between MCF, a prison and at least one other organisation that distributes the refurbished goods to people in need.

MCF is currently running projects in:
Prisons: Liverpool, Haverigg (Cumbria) Garth (Lancashire), Kirkham (Lancashire), Humberside, Lindholme (S Yorkshire), Risley, Hatfield (W Yorks), Full Sutton and Nottingham.

1 approved premises: In 2015, MCF partnered with Achieve NorthWest in a European Social Fund (ESF)-funded project for people on licensed probation in an approved premises in Greater Manchester. Trainees have an on-site workshop staffed by a trained bike mechanic instructor, and is funded for 5 years.

2 communities: In the autumn of 2015, we launched a new community bike project, MCF Bradford Bikery, based within social housing in central Bradford, and working in partnership with InCommmunities Group Ltd.
Also in 2015, MCF opened an affordable community bike shop and workshop in Shipley, which has since thrived into a sustainable social enterprise

Why We Do It

We Aim to Contribute to a Reduction in Reoffending: 

Our prison workshops help break the cycle of reoffending. MCF workshops aim to help trainees become more employable and build their resilience, so they are less likely to reoffend. We nurture prison trainees’ self-worth and their belief in community.  We donate bikes to the poorest communities in the world and feedback to trainees, bringing charity work into prisoners’ lives, helping them see the positive impact of their work. 

Opportunities to Learn and Help Others:

In the community we offer structured volunteering and training opportunities, both for people in contact with the criminal justice system and those with an interest in bikes and bike maintenance who want to support their community. MCF provides quality refurbished bikes and affordable servicing and repairs improving the community's access to cycling. 

Benefit the Environment:

Since we opened in 2010, MCF has collected over 10,000 bikes and 1,100 wheelchairs  that would otherwise have gone to landfill.