From Training to Evaluation: How the GLM+ Project is Growing

The first quarter of 2026 brought the GLM+ project team a series of key milestones — from therapist training and supervisory sessions to an evaluation visit and a full-day review of the first pilot run. Here is an overview of what happened between January and April 2026, and where the project is heading next.

January: Building the Foundation at NÚDZ

On 5 and 6 January 2026, staff from the therapeutic teams at Heřmanice Prison and Vinařice Prison gathered at the National Institute of Mental Health (NÚDZ) for the first in-person training of the year. Led by NÚDZ specialists, the sessions focused on modules 4 through 6 of the GLM+ manual.

These modules develop therapists' skills in areas that are central to the programme: group dynamics, identity work, and engaging participants with questions of responsibility for their offending. The training was grounded in the Good Lives Model approach — one that focuses not primarily on eliminating risk, but on actively supporting participants in building a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. Therapists valued both the professional quality of the instruction and the format itself, which gave them space to share experiences and connect theory with the realities of their day-to-day practice.

March: Training Inside the Prison — the Relationships Module

The second round of training took place on 30 and 31 March 2026, this time directly at Heřmanice Prison. The event combined training with intervision — a reflective practice session in which the therapeutic teams shared their experiences from the ongoing first pilot run of the programme.

The focus of the module was Relationships — one of the core pillars of the GLM+ approach. In the Good Lives Model, healthy, authentic, and mutually respectful relationships are considered a key primary good: a value whose fulfilment contributes to a meaningful life and reduces the likelihood of sexual reoffending. Working through this module helps participants better understand patterns in their own relationships and develop the skills needed to build and sustain them after release.

Holding the training directly inside the prison was a deliberate choice. Therapists were able to engage with the module in a context they know intimately, and the intervision element gave them space to name specific challenges arising from the pilot. The event was rated as valuable both professionally and in terms of the programme's implementation process.

March: Evaluation Visit to Heřmanice Prison

On 27 March 2026, the project's evaluator and service designer visited Heřmanice Prison as part of the ongoing evaluation of GLM+. Their aim was to gather direct feedback from programme participants — both on how the programme has been running and on the impact they feel it is having on them.

Direct engagement with participants is irreplaceable in the evaluation of GLM+. First-hand accounts from those going through the programme make it possible to assess whether it is being delivered in line with its guiding principles and to identify areas where improvements can be made. Evaluation in the GLM+ project is not a final audit — it is a formative tool that continuously informs how the programme is developed and refined.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to the members of the Heřmanice Prison implementation team — Mgr. Radka Kratinová and PhDr. Josef Dalík — for their outstanding work and for the dedication with which they carry the programme forward.

April: What the First Pilot Run Is Teaching Us

On 7 April 2026, the GLM+ project implementation team gathered for a full-day coordination and evaluation meeting at the Czech Prison Service Recreation Centre in Prague. The meeting was devoted to a thorough review of the first pilot run and to planning the conditions for its continuation and expansion.

The discussions revealed a wealth of valuable insights. The therapeutic team from Heřmanice Prison confirmed that despite a challenging start — during which it took approximately two months for the programme to find its footing — group cohesion gradually developed and participants' motivation shifted from predominantly external to genuinely internal. Participants themselves identified the ability to speak openly about things they had never been able to discuss before as the most significant benefit of the programme.

The team also addressed concrete challenges: refining the participant selection process, better preparing future participants for the realities of the programme, the possibility of extending the therapeutic run, and introducing an orientation phase at the beginning. Strengthening continuity of care and improving coordination with partner institutions — in particular the Probation and Mediation Service — was also highlighted as a priority.

The meeting produced clear next steps: the selection process for the second pilot run is to begin no later than June 2026, participant-facing materials are to be revised by the end of April, and Ostrov Prison is to be newly integrated into the programme. A training session on the Static-99R assessment tool is planned for May.

Why This Matters

GLM+ is more than a therapeutic programme. It is an attempt at systemic change in how the Czech Republic works with perpetrators of sexually motivated crime — change that connects training, evaluation, inter-institutional collaboration, and advocacy into a single functioning whole.

Every training session, every intervision meeting, every evaluation visit, and every coordination meeting is part of the same process: continuously learning what works, what needs to be adjusted, and how to build a programme that remains viable and accessible across the prison system long after the project ends.

The first pilot run is still under way. But what the first quarter of 2026 has already shown is that the GLM+ project is moving in the right direction.

The GLM+ project (reg. no. CZ.03.03.01/00/23_051/0004708) is funded by the Operational Programme Employment Plus and co-funded by the European Union.