RISE Youth

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RISE Youth offers free, long-term life coaching to young offenders leaving custody. In addition, it provides participant coachees with diverse career mentorship opportunities and meaningful apprenticeships.

Standings & Awards

86 out of 86 in Europe
268 out of 268 in Economic Dev
935 out of 935 in Design
992 out of 992 in Charitable
4003 out of 4003 Overall

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VOTES

RISE Youth: dream. explore. achieve.

Reducing re-offending rates and empowering young offenders with life coaching, new social networks, and jobs

With youth crime becoming more severe, unemployment rates increasing, and further education opportunities decreasing, there is a real and urgent need to inspire and support crime-involved young people. By using life coaching as a vehicle for personal development, RISE Youth empowers young offenders to discover their strengths and passions, and thereby take responsibility for their own lives. Through its innovative programme, court-involved youth mature as a result of the support, direction, and exposure that RISE Youth facilitates. Graduates emerge with skills, confidence, and network to take control of their adult lives, embrace workplace or educational opportunities, and stay out of the criminal justice system.

Life coaching is a powerful method of communication that can improve relationships and performance. It is about finding direction and solutions—moving forward in a positive, non-judgmental way from where we are now to where we really want to be. The coach does not offer advice, therapy, or treatment; but rather, in a confidential conversation, asks the right questions to enable another person to find the answers.

Coaching has been shown to enable people of all ages and backgrounds to improve their performance. Programmes targeting at-risk young people have led to a 50% drop in drug and alcohol misuse and significantly increased levels of self-esteem, aspirations and school attendance by 80%.

RISE Youth is the first specialised "through the gates" life coaching programme for young offenders. It presents a disruptive innovation in the criminal justice rehabilitative space that addresses the root causes of criminal activity and social inequality-rather than the resultant problem behaviours.

RISE Youth challenges young people to find their passions, strengths, and vision for a positive future. It offers free, long-term one-to-one life coaching for 15-17-year-olds exiting custody. It enables coachees to discover their personal “spark”, speak with career mentors with shared interests, and obtain meaningful apprenticeships. RISE Youth thus not only aims to reduce reoffending, but to truly enable socially excluded young people to join mainstream society, become economically self-sufficient, and enjoy greater personal and professional success.

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

RISE Youth offers personal life coaching to youth in custody. We recruit volunteer certified life coaches who are friendly, resilient, and experienced working with youth. Coaches are trained comprehensively and matched one-to-one with young people nearing release from custody. Over a one-year relationship, pairs meet weekly for coaching sessions to enable young people to identify their passions, meet role models and mentors who can support them in their journey, and find gainful employment.

2. Who gains the most?

By the end of the RISE Youth programme, young people will have identified their interests and passions, developed goals for their futures, and increased their confidence and feelings of self-worth. They will have expanded their social and professional networks, and will have found meaningful employment or education. Society gains from reduced offending, an increase in skilled youth labour, and financial savings which can be redistributed elsewhere.

3. Who pays?

The costs of RISE Youth's pilot programme are being financed by a private foundation, several in-kind donors, business plan prizes, and a fee-for-service contract with the pilot young offender institutions. Once we have demonstrated results from our pilot, we will reduce our reliance on catalytic, donations-based income, and pursue earned revenue from government contracts (Youth Justice Board) and as part of a consortium in government payment-by-results schemes.

4. What is your success?

RISE Youth is assessing programme and curricular success through qualitative and quantitative methods. Our measures, developed by an external volunteer team at the University of Cambridge, include reduction of reoffending, engagement in education, training, and employment, and peer and family relationships. We will also track employment and educational re-enrollment rates. Our metrics are based on other agencies' measures and the input of our Youth Advisory Board and Programme Design teams.

5. How will you do it?

(1) RISE Youth's talented Youth Advisory Board, with direct/indirect custodial experience, informs our programme design. (2) We recruit certified, experienced, and thoroughly trained life coaches. (3) We work closely with criminal justice and community-based partners to ensure a full continuum of aftercare support. (4) We are independently evaluated by the University of Cambridge to ensure continual performance improvement. (5) We partner with grassroots charities through to corporations.