🧸 Our Story: Born Behind Bars, Made With Heart

While sitting in a prison cell on remand, overwhelmed by the rising cost-of-living crisis and the devastating reality of child poverty, Paddy had a moment of clarity. Watching the news, he saw reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Action for Children showing how deeply poverty was affecting children - kids going to school hungry, without proper clothing, and without something as simple and comforting as a teddy bear.

He looked around at the other prisoners and realised many of them were products of this same environment. "We need to be the ones to change this," he thought.

Why can’t prison workshops offer real-world training and solve real-world problems?

That’s how Bearing Gifts was born, a project where prisoners create patchwork teddy bears from recycled textile waste. Each bear is made in a pair: one is sold, and the other is donated to a child in need. Two teddies sharing one heart - a symbol of care, connection, and change.