Emotion, Action and Power in the Penal Voluntary Sector, 2019-2020

This is qualitative data from six focus groups, undertaken 2019–2020, including a total of 32 penal voluntary sector (PVS) practitioners from England and Scotland, holding diverse roles (i.e., strategic leaders, frontline workers, volunteers, lived experience leaders and activists). The study overall was an interpretive study of the PVS which ran from 2019-2021. We explored what people in this sector do and why, what it feels like to practice in this sector, and what power people feel they have in their role. The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defence for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. We explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotland marshalled their personal and professional resources to “keep going” amidst significant challenges. For data storage and analysis purposes transcripts have been carefully anonymised with any potentially identifiable details removed. Further information about the project and links to publications are available on the University of Nottingham SafeSoc project webpage linked under Related resources.