About Nacro - the crime reduction charity

“Nacro’s work is all about including people, giving them opportunities and second chances.  It says something crucial about the kind of community we want to live in.”
Paul Cavadino, Nacro’s Chief Executive

At Nacro – the crime reduction charity, we work with people in our society who everyone else has given up on; the people who are labelled ‘too difficult to work with’, ‘problems’ and ‘troublemakers’.  We don’t judge, we just find practical ways to help them to change their lives whether they are 8 or 80.

Around 1 in 4 people in the UK have a criminal conviction (not including driving offences). These are people who have done something wrong, been punished for it and some will need help to live productively in our communities. Nacro is here to provide that help.  We offer people a chance to turn their lives around for the better. There is no better feeling than knowing you have helped change someone’s life. And this change does not only mean their life is improved, but it means the community benefits because they are not offending, but making a positive contribution through work or volunteering. 

Nacro provides help to ex-offenders with practical issues like employment and housing to help them ‘resettle’; to make a crime-free life for themselves in the community. At the same time, Nacro has always helped people who are at risk of getting involved in crime, for instance, because they cannot find constructive ways to spend their time, or through problems at school. We believe it’s vital to go ‘upstream’ to prevent people getting into serious trouble in the first place.

Services to individuals and communities
We run housing schemes, learning and skills programmes, youth activity and outreach projects, neighbourhood-based projects and offer advice and services to prisoners and ex-offenders.

Services to organisations and partnerships
Our consultancy, research and training services offer expertise in the fields of mental health, equality and criminal justice, and youth crime.

Policy and campaigning
We campaign for changes in the way crime is tackled and promote better ways of reducing it, based on our practical experience.

We rely on the support of individuals, the generosity of trusts and foundations, the statutory sector and businesses to fund the majority of our work.

Please support us and play an active role in ensuring the continuation of our unique and valuable work giving people a chance to turn their lives around for the better.

Our history

Nacro was formed in March 1966 - the successor of NADPAS, the National Association of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies. Clearly a somewhat unwieldy name, as the organisation evolved, it also became a name which was no longer truly representative. The range of activities in which Nacro has involved itself has always been diverse and this development tradition has continued, as its history has unfolded.

The early work was focused on supporting new developments, co-ordinating existing activities and generally helping others to become more effective in their 'after care work'. 1969 saw Nacro establish regional councils and to work through a regional structure, giving it a locally concentrated national profile.

The 1970s soon saw the regional structure replaced by a more centralised national strategy, with the focus placed on the specific areas of housing, education and employment. These areas remain at the core of the present work Nacro does, but the breadth of its services has increased considerably to now include; preventative initiatives, flexible support networks for those still in prison and those recently released, as well as the production of research documents and the influencing of Government policy making.