Since launching in Australia in 2018, the Community Based Health and First Aid (CBHFA) program has been bringing prisoners, prison staff and Red Cross together to implement meaningful health, safety and wellbeing projects within prison communities.
Now running in four Australian prisons, the program trains prisoners to become Special Status Red Cross volunteers within their correctional facility.

Volunteers learn skills and build confidence and self-worth, which has impact on their lives beyond the prison gate.
Prison communities benefit in a range of ways, from improvements in safety and relations between prisoners and officers, to general hygiene and cleanliness and capacity to respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis.