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@xobikes

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🔧 Recycling bikes. Rebuilding lives.
🚲 Training prison leavers to become bike mechanics.
📍Lewisham 📍Blackfriars Road
Swag your bike ⬇️

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Welcome to our toilet! 🚽

If you need a haircut, a bike service or just the loo, you’ll find a warm welcome at XO Bikes and Barbers.

#pooetry courtesy of Once Upon a Time: An Anthology of Prison Writing, the debut book from Bang Up Books @the_merrittocracy produced entirely in prison.

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Welcome to our toilet! 🚽

If you need a haircut, a bike service or just the loo, you’ll find a warm welcome at XO Bikes and Barbers.

🎨 #pooetry and artwork courtesy of Once Upon a Time: An Anthology of Prison Writing, a book produced entirely in prison @the_merrittocracy @lauralsug

📍XO Bikes & Barbers, 176 Blackfriars Rd, SE1

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We’re on the news! 📺

We recently featured on @bbclondon News live from our Lewisham HQ on the early prisoner release scheme and how our @xobikes and @xo_barbers programmes help people beyond the gate.

Thanks to all the guys who stepped in to share their experiences.

#BBC #London #Lewisham

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Our programme team have started combined XO masterclasses with both our programmes, and they’re off to a roaring start.

First sessions have explored mindset, healthy habits and how to communicate your story.

They’ve also been a great opportunity for our trainees to see both our spaces, meet each other, socialise and even get their haircut or bikes fixed!

#ReducingReoffending #RebuildingLives

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We launched The Opportunity Network in 2025 to celebrate 10 years of employing prison leavers, spearheaded by Liam, our People Director, a year on we've made great progress.

Our event yesterday at the Old Bailey brought together charities, organisations and employers with a shared ambition: opening more doors for prison leavers.

We have the privilege of hearing from two of the High Court Judges currently sitting at the Old Bailey which was both insightful and inspiring, as well as from a panel which included a prison leaver who spoke passionately about the employment journey post prison.

From employment and workplace tasters to training and mentoring, there are so many ways to help someone take their next step. We have connected like-minded organisations with charities to provide the support so conversations turn into action.

Thank you to everyone who joined us.

@sheerluxe @gcoleridgecole @theclinkcharity
@xobikes @kerbfood @onwards.and_upwards @redemptionroasters

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We’re proud of our stand out grade II-listed building on Blackfriars Rd. It used to be the old Sons of Temperance Friendly Society. Now it’s home to XO Bikes and Barbers. We’re on a mission to keep the ex in ex-offender.

There’s exciting things happening at XO Barbers.

On 6 October, we launch the XO Barber Shop. Spread the word. Book in now at xobarbers.com

Plus, pop in and get your bike fixed at the same time at XO Bikes!

📍176 Blackfriars Rd, Southwark, SE1

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📢 @xobikes cohort 22 is officially underway!

Day one started with introductions and a big welcome from MD Will, with one message at the heart: “We’re about you guys. That’s really important.”

His 3️⃣ top tips:

⏰ Get really good at the things that take no talent.
✏️ Take the pressure off.
🔁 You get out what you put in.

With Jason and Anna at the helm, the group got stuck into setting expectations, asking, “What do we want the XO space to be like?”

Jason’s message was simple: “There’s a lot of support here. But at the same time, you’ve got to want it.”

#ReducingReoffending #Training #RebuildingLives

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Some mornings stay with you. 💛

Last week we welcomed Stef Jones, former adland copywriter and agency founder to The emPOWER Breakfast for our second emPOWERMENt event.

And what a morning it was.

A room full of people listening, laughing, connecting and being reminded of something incredibly simple: we belong to each other.

Stef spoke with such openness about his own story, the work of his charity Onwards & Upwards and the creation of @xobikes and @xo_barbers, and what can happen when we stop defining people by the worst thing that has happened in their lives and start seeing the person, the potential and the possibility instead.

There was so much joy in the room. So much humanity.

And alongside the conversation, the brilliant XO Bikes team chatting to guests and showing us what purpose, skills and community can look like in practice and Jason XO 007 stood up and shared his own story and how impactful the community built by Stef and O&U has been.

Here are some photos of the event and you can see more by going to the 2026 speakers page of the website www.theempowerbreakfast.co.uk

If you would like to be a FOXO - Friend Of Ex Offenders sharing your time and talent to help build this movement email foxo@onwardsandupwards.uk

Thank you Stef ☀️ Thank you to everyone who came, listened, contributed and helped create another very special emPOWER morning.

And in Stef’s words ‘we belong to eachother’

Don’t forget.

🫂

#empoweringconversations #theemPOWERbreakfast #onwardsandupwards #stefjones #atheneparker

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Introducing XO Bikes 🚲

Discover, test, and get your kit fitted in person at their Lewisham and Blackfriars Rd stores.

Swytch, now in person.

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“We’ve forgotten that we belong to each other.”

That was the line from Stef Jones that stayed with me yesterday.

Stef’s mission with @onwards.and_upwards is bold: to help empty prisons.

Not through rhetoric, but by tackling one of the biggest reasons people return to them in the first place. A lack of work, stability, community, purpose and belonging.

Through XO Bikes, XO Barbers and XO Clobber, people are trained, employed and supported to build a life they don’t need to escape from.

And underneath all of it is something even more profoundly human.Love.

Stef talked about investing love into our work, our families, our communities and each other. About remembering that we belong to one another.

Then Jason, XO007, stood up.

He was the seventh person to go through the XO Bikes programme. Today he is Assistant Manager of the shop and an ambassador for XO.

He told the room that without XO, he believes he would probably be dead or serving life in prison. That is what “emptying prisons” looks like in human terms.

Not a statistic. A person whose life went another way.

There was so much inspiration bursting out of the room. Because Stef’s creative skills have been brought to work rooted in the belief that if you give someone skills, dignity, income, stability, community and something to move towards, you can change the trajectory of a life.

And that is purpose in its purest form.

Using what you have to create possibility for somebody else. Look out for the newsletter and info on how you can get involved to lend your skills and gain purpose with Gang For Good.

We need to remember….We belong to each other. ♥️

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