Our History

StandOut is the vision of our founders Penny Parker and Jo Fellows. 

Penny’s background was in running the highly regarded Sycamore Tree restorative justice course which she was involved in setting up in HMPs Wandsworth, Bronzefield and Pentonville.  Too often she saw that having unlocked a motivation to change in people, the practical steps to prepare for the transition out of prison were missing.  When she found Resurgo’s award-winning Spear Programme, Penny thought it could be adapted to work very effectively with people leaving prison.  Working with Jo, whose background was in working with young people facing barriers to employment through the Spear Programme, they brought their shared vision to reality in 2017 as they piloted StandOut in HMP Wandsworth.

Having successfully established the programme in HMP Wandsworth, in 2019 StandOut launched in HMP Pentonville. 

In 2020, in response to Covid-19, StandOut pioneered a Helpline service that provided support to over 600 men leaving HMP Wandsworth and HMP Pentonville during the pandemic.