A member of the Northern Ireland Prison Service has been given a prestigious award from the Winston Churchill Fellowship Trust.

Dave Bowden, a tutor at the Prison Service College in Millisle, was among “The Few” chosen from more than 670 people throughout the UK to be given a Travelling Fellowship Award from the Trust for his work in Rehabilitation of Offenders.

Mr Bowden will be travelling to Denmark and New Zealand later this year to look at various programmes for dealing with offenders and will write a thesis on “Developing Positive Regimes for Life Sentence Prisoners”.

To receive the award, Mr Bowden had to pass a rigorous interview before a panel of experts in London.

He said: “I was delighted and surprised to be given the award. It’s a fantastic opportunity to see what is happening in other parts of the world and to use this knowledge to help the Prison Service’s work on Resettlement of Offenders.”

“I gave the interview panel a resume of what I had achieved in my time in the Prison Service and my reason for wanting to do a travelling fellowship. They looked closely at my project and how it would link into the community.”

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established in 1965 as a living tribute to the former British PM who died that year. It exists to provide fellowships to allow British citizens to travel abroad each year.

The Travelling fellows broaden their knowledge of the people and countries visited as well as enhancing their subject skills which can then enable them to make a more effective contribution in their employment or community.

Notes to Editors

For an interview with Dave Bowden contact the NIPS Press Office 02890520938.

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