Rise Community Jiu Jitsu CIC uses Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a tool to change young people’s lives. Practically, this means we run accessible Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu programmes to benefit young people’s physical health, mental health and employability. In our first year of operation, ending March 2025, we have created a foundation and model on which to build in future years. Our key activities over this period have included: -Building a business platform to support launching activities (including a website, insurance, key documents and a brand created pro-bono by 400 Communications). -Engaging our first part-time members of staff and volunteers, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) coaches with youth-facing experience, company Directors, an advisory board and a Brand Director to support our Founder and Managing Director. -Bringing in grants and sponsorship to enable our first BJJ classes for youth benefit to take place in London and in Bristol and grow further into 2026. Notable grants and support include from the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Hackney Council, Go! London and The Shackleton Foundation. -Running a summer BJJ programme funded by Hackney Council in London and starting our schools and adults BJJ programmes in Bristol. -Carrying out our first surveys and evaluation of our impact across these settings. Across these activities we have had the following impacts that benefit the community: -Over 150 young people accessing the life-changing benefits of BJJ for the first time through Rise, alongside in-session mentoring, positive role-modelling and, in some cases, employability (see below). -Out of young people surveyed on our Hackney youth programme, 100% felt improved physical wellbeing through taking part, and 92% felt improved mental wellbeing. -Offering part-time paid work experience to one young person in Hackney through our work there. -Working alongside community organisations including Hackney Quest, Frampton Park Baptist Church, Brunel Field Primary School and Full Circle Youth Project to support the young people they work with. This has laid the foundation to build successfully on this work in 2025-6.

We have several key stakeholder groups who are integral to our activities and are consulted accordingly. These include youth/community groups, young people, coaches, our advisory board and funders/partners. It is crucial to our model to partner with youth and community groups, who in turn work with the young people who can most benefit from training in BJJ through our model. Key youth and community groups we have consulted with over our first year include: Hackney Quest, Frampton Park Baptist Church, Brunel Field Primary School and Full Circle Youth Project. We have consulted with these stakeholders to determine the need for our offer, which young people they work with can most benefit from training with us and how we can schedule and adapt our sessions accordingly. The young people we work with are, of course, key stakeholders. We serve a broad age range between 7-24 although most are between the ages of 7 and 16. We work with young people who may struggle with mainstream educational environment, be at risk of exclusion from these environments or who are outside of education, employment or training. As far as possible we co-design our sessions with young people, taking feedback and surveys on what they enjoy and how they best learn to ensure what we do is as inclusive as possible. Our coaches, who are all freelance and part time, are integral to what we do. They all have youth-facing experience alongside BJJ coaching experience and are invested in working for a unique social enterprise that is helping more young people access BJJ. Coaches are regularly asked for feedback on how we approach sessions and how we can best work with different young people, as well as attending workshops and reflection sessions where appropriate. They are crucial to helping us define and grow our impact. Our advisory board is made up of diverse individuals with a variety of experience across social enterprise, BJJ, public and private sectors. They advise on strategy and operations across our work, and we meet quarterly to consult with them and change our approach accordingly. Finally, we have a range of funders and partners who we have consulted with around our work and who have shaped it in different ways. Across this period the School for Social Entrepreneurs provided useful advice and guidance around starting up, Go! London helped shape our approach to evaluation and The Shackleton Foundation provided valuable input for our strategy over the coming years. Broadly, we aim to involve these different stakeholders as much as possible across our work, ensuring what we do is shaped by those who believe in, access and benefit from our activities and our overall mission.

Our Founder and Managing Director Tom Hague is remunerated for specific services provided through a separate Limited Company, People Plus Places Ltd. These services in this period were fundraising consultancy, project management and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaching, and totalled £545.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration