At the Cascade Foundation we transform lives. We teach, mentor and support people who have dyslexia, head-injury or other learning difficulties. We also train volunteers to be mentors and learning coaches.
But you don’t need to have a learning difficulty to get involved! As well as learners, we always have the need for mentors, volunteers and anyone looking to complete work experience at our Cascade Health & Learning Hub – the door is always open.
Our research shows that many groups of people have dyslexia or similar learning difficulties.
Men with learning disabilities die, on average, 13 years sooner than men in the general population.
Women with learning disabilities die, on average, 20 years sooner than women in the general population.
Up to 2 million Britons ‘have undiagnosed dyslexia’– the cost of this to the UK economy isbetween £1bn – 2.5bn per year.
Our projects within prisons, job centres, local Community Rehabilitation Companies and Special Units schools have uncovered the following statistics:
- prisoners 53% with dyslexia
- unemployed 55% with dyslexia
- army veterans 50% with dyslexia
- youth offenders 80% with dyslexia
6 May 20201
The Cascade Foundation has published a new briefing paper which reviews current research on the digital divide devoid of reading & literacy skills on the long-term consequences of COVID-19 and sets out the key recommendations for the future.
Professional Development
Changing your mind set in how you see yourself and how others see you. Our courses and training develop and improve skills to better meet the needs of all individuals.
Our professional development courses have been carried out in 3 Universities, Leeds, Sheffield Hallam and Doncaster to help undergraduates and graduates to become better Probation Officers and Social Workers.
Our first volunteer was an undergraduate attending Sheffield University for 2 years where she was struggling to reach her required grades. Volunteering through the summer to decorate the Learning Hub, our CEO worked with her to help to write her dissertation, putting placements in place for her to understand how to become a Probation Officer. In 12 weeks, she learnt about her dissertation, her learning needs, and how to work with ex-offenders. This led to her gaining 80% for her dissertation. She graduated with a 2.1.
Innovative Projects
Our projects over the last 20 years have included training courses for schools, training providers, custodial learning, transitional houses for newly released prisoners, special units for children and The Cascade Health & Learning Hub, which is the first prototype of its kind which amalgamates all above mentioned projects in one place. This has changed the lives of 12,000 people within the community. Our co-productive bespoke courses and services by equality and parity has brought people together working as equals, developing a shared understanding of building relationships and social inclusion building on strength-based practice, emphasising each individual’s self-determination to change their surroundings.
Our successfully developed co-productive bespoke project ‘Dyslexia Behind Bars II’, took place within HM Prison Chelmsford, Doncaster and Young Offenders Institution. It created a specialist mentoring course for peer prisoners sharing and promoting the transfer of the prisoners’ skills and experience across the prison system. This led to prisoners being trained as adult learning tutors for other prisoners to achieve the PTLLS qualification.
All our prisoners/ex-offenders/learners develop their skills, behaviours, and attitudes, through direct instruction and/or added support as necessary. This enables learners to learn and grow in self-knowledge, social interactions, physical and emotional health, and self-determination within day-to-day life. During the 2 years of The Cascade Health & Learning at Marshgate Hub, violence did not occur, which demonstrated that our approach in helping individuals with learning difficulties was effective with positive outcomes.
Our outcomes from using this approach have already saved millions of pounds for society. For example, in Chelmsford 50% of our learners had committed violent crimes, 4 of them had been in prison 40 times each. However only 5.9% of those that completed both the teaching and mentors’ courses reoffended compared with the national average of 70%.
Likewise, in Marshgate 32 prisoners were released during our first year, but only 3% are known to have reoffended in 4 years of release (compared to more than 45% nationally). Furthermore, through our concepts we also reduced violence within Gothenberg Prison in Sweden. This shows overwhelmingly the link between understanding your own disability, decreasing the frustration that brings and ultimately reducing violence/crime.
TV shows
Learning to read at 50 years old
Over the last few months our CEO had been contacted by another media company, about a celebrity that went to university was diagnosed with dyslexia and still can not read his scripts and lines for the show he participates in. So looking forward to see how this program can get the audience behind it!
The Write Offs – 2020
The producers of ‘What makes a murderer?’ and Dr Thakordas-Desai were so Impressed with our CEO for her compassion and knowledge of working with prisoners, changing their lives by gaining qualifications that they put her forward for the ‘Write Offs’.
In one week, she had been approached by the Commissioning Editor Factual Entertainment at channel 4 to become their on-screen and off-screen expert while also looking at their after-care package provided for the learners for the program, ‘The Writes Offs’, working with Shine TV and Sandi Toksvig. This dealt with issues covering young people/adult literacy, crime with dyslexia, head injuries and mental health issues.
What makes a murderer? – episode 2 – 2019
Neurocriminologist Professor Adrian Raine is a British psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. He is noted for his research on the neurobiological and biosocial causes of antisocial and violent behaviour in children and adults. On this program he studies three ex-offenders by biology, scanning their brains, measuring their heart and sweat rate and analysing their hormonal activity. Forensic psychologist Dr Vicky Thakordas-Desai delves into their emotional history interviewing them about their crime and the life that led to it. Our CEO was asked to be interviewed by their team on her work within the prison and also to meet Paul Aldridge who was convicted of murder by joint enterprise.
Surprise Surprise with Holly Willoughby and Richard Branson – 2015
Our CEO had been contacted by a researcher of the ‘Surprise Surprise’ program. They were looking into how dyslexia could affect lives. They told her that they had found five companies working in this field, and Cascade was the only one that was a charity. Her son’s story concerning his head injury had led The Cascade Foundation’s projects into the prison system. They informed her that that they were planning a program on literacy. For the ten-minute slot on the program, they had filmed 32 hours of research, talking to ex-prisoners, learners, colleagues and management, filming inside the prison for the first time. The producer of the show had informed our CEO that over 5 million people would watch this program in England, and it will also be aired all around the world. That’s exactly what happened, phone calls and visits from many countries, just to see how The Cascade works and its ethos. Through this change was made in the way we perceive nerodiversity/head injuries and mental health.
Teachers TV: Literacy Behind Bars 2008
Laura Jewiss from Sittingborne College Kent came into Chelmsford prison, to make a program for Teachers TV (2007). Laura was shadowing our CEO for two days, watching her methods of multi-sensory and mentoring, she also spoke to the prisoners about their school time and what challenges they had faced with teachers in the past. Some teachers had just left them at the back of the class and did not do any work with them.
Laura, speaking at the launch of the report 2012, told Cascade how she went back to her school with new enthusiasm about what she’d seen with Jackie. Laura had discovered that up to 30 to 40 students each year had problems with learning and did not go on to further education or any type of education. She discussed with other teachers a way forward to help these learners, she also discussed it with the students at the college to see what they needed help with.
What shocked Laura was after researching the first year of the students coming into secondary school, 15% of them came into school at age 11 with the reading age of 7 years and 64% of learners had a two-year delay in their reading age, which was not acceptable.
In terms of achievement the Government set target levels at primary and then levels at 14 years, so in 2009 the first literacy pod was set up and in that first-year, 10% of students actually made achievements above the target the Government had set and now in the third year 37% were above targets set by the Government. In their first year only 40% of students went on to take GCSEs but by the third year, it increased to 61% taking GCSEs. They had an attendance rate of 95% and students were now going into apprenticeships and also going on to further education.
Laura commented that “working with Jackie has kick started our education system in the way that we work with students with learning difficulties, they can now have hopes, dreams and ambitions of what they can do after school and they do not have to end up in prison. She has inspired us to really make a difference in our community.”
Success stories
The Cascade Foundation has delivered numerous projects in prisons and we opened our very first Cascade Health and Learning Hub prototype, putting all services under one roof, ‘cascading’ learning in the local community of Doncaster.
Our diverse way of operating enables us to work with ex-offenders, ex-miners, ex-service personal, travellers, NEETs, long-term unemployed and people who are a risk of offending. At the Hub everyone is made to feel at home, just like a big family all with the same DNA of learning disabilities.
Through our volunteering and work experience program, individuals as well as learners become mentors and learning coaches. Our bespoke courses offer much-needed support to our learners and enable them to gain a better understanding of their disabilities. Our learners will, first of all, embark on our “Cascade Personal & Social Development” course. They will begin their learning through our pre-entry multi-sensory English, Numeracy, ICT project-based activities. These activities will develop their skills and prepare them for employment or becoming an entrepreneur and, ultimately, setting up their own business.
Our five years in Doncaster has shown us the need for people to understand their learning disabilities. There are four prisons within a 10-mile radius of the Hub with over 4,000 prisoners who are at low to medium risk. At the job centre we have found 5,000 people and 3,000 of them are long-term unemployed with low literacy skills. In Marshgate prison we found 53% of offenders had dyslexia, ADHD and head injuries; and 52% their families in the community had learning difficulties.
We have identified many challenges that need to be addressed:
- Learning disabilities
- Poor mental and physical health
- Homelessness
- Debt
- Unemployment
- Loneliness and social isolation
- Family issues
- Ignorance of healthy eating and a preference for eating junk food
Our projects and courses are having a significant impact on many thousands of lives within Doncaster. Our prison project within Marshgate started in September 2013. 12 months later and our first 32 prisoners left and returned to the community. The re-offending rate for this project remains at 3%. Nationally that rate stands at 30%. The cost of keeping a prisoner in prison for a year is £36,500. So, over the last four years we have saved the prison system, on these 32 prisoners alone, £4,672,000.
Due to the success of the Cascade Foundation’s projects, our CEO received an OBE for her work with prisoners with learning difficulties. Her work was also recognised by the Duke of York and she received the Community Initiative Award 2017. In November 2018, she was given a Lifetime Achievement award by Inclusive Companies.
About Us
The Cascade Foundation is a registered charity founded by Jackie Hewitt-Main OBE.
Jackie launched the charity in 2013 at the Houses of Parliament with a key speech given by the Right Hon. Chris Grayling MP, Secretary of State for Justice:
“It’s always a great pleasure to celebrate a great voluntary contribution to prevent offenders reoffending, to help them turn their lives around, to help them deal with the issues that got them into prison in the first place. This is a really great example of a small project in one prison that has the real potential to grow into something much bigger.
Dyslexia is a forgotten challenge. What you’ve done Jackie is you’ve played a huge role in uncovering the challenge. The work you did in Chelmsford Prison really started a ball that will roll a long way.
We are here today to celebrate your work and to wish you the best. It’s clear you have already made a big difference, and I’ve no doubt you will continue making a difference. Thank you and well done.”
Since our launch, we have been running a successful project inside HMP Doncaster which has met with considerable praise. John Biggin OBE, outgoing governor of the prison commented:
“Like a breath of fresh air to the prison … The potential for sustained and often life-changing results for prisoners going through this programme cannot be underestimated … The potential for good that this programme can deliver is not only worth investing in, but embracing as part of the DNA of our prison.”
We also run an ongoing post-release project and a community learning project at the Cascade Health & Learning Hub in Doncaster.
Make a donation
Making a donation to The Cascade Foundation is easy. You can make a donation via the Paypal link below using your credit or debit card. Many thanks in advance!