1st meeting with Lou Everatt, Senior Probation Officer

Gregor and I met with Lou at George and Delilah's, Cowley Road on Thursday afternoon (7th Oct). Lou is Senior Probation Officer with the substance abuse team located at the Old Music Hall on Cowley Road. We covered many points in our discussion, during which we learnt a lot about the nature of the probation service and how some of our preconceived ideas for an illuminated attention grabbing façade were perhaps now inappropriate as a solution. The main issues that I felt would make an immediate design impact included:

- The Probation Service would like to be kept discreet and unpublicised: most members of the public don't realise that offenders spend significant time of their sentence on probation. If the building became too attention-grabbing, this would also put off offenders from turning up to their meetings.

- Branding. Thames Valley Probation as a trust, have now developed their own "branding" via the use of a logo, pantone colours etc. The contrast between centralised vs localised arises when dealing with branding... is it advertised as Oxford Probation or is Thames Valley emphasised?

- Many clients have mobility issues and/or ill health.

- 70% of men in custody have mental health issues compared with 90% of women.

- Macmillan House has several group activity rooms. When clients wait in the waiting room, no two groups should be located together. e.g. a group workshop for sex offenders is on at the same time as a workshop for substance abuse. The attendees for the two groups must not share the same space.

- The need for staff prejudices to be challenged, as well as members of the public.

This has challenged us to rethink the idea of using LEDs and other digital facade mediums, or perhaps integrate them in a way that is truly sensitive to the client's requirements. Currently I feel inclined toward pursuing a non-digital data interface that is still ever-changing and versatile in its nature.

In addition to this, Lou made a series of suggestions for possible co-habitation ideas e.g.

- celebrate the successes of probation

- bring in artworks created by ex-offenders

- possibly incorporate health elements e.g. needle exchange/free condoms. Many clients are not registered with a GP or dentist.

We will meet Lou again on Tuesday 12th October at Macmillan House, St Aldates, for a look around the facility.