7-Week Programme
Phoenix
Rise and Rebuild
Practical, personal support for people facing the greatest barriers to work
Phoenix is about rebirth and reinvention. It is for people who have been furthest from employment: people leaving prison, the long-term unemployed, those without qualifications, or anyone who has been written off before. Over seven weeks, we help you find what you are good at, package it up and sell it, so you can build a working life that does not depend on someone else giving you a chance.
From Ex-con to Icon
Most people leaving prison are not looking to get rich or build the next big thing. What they want is normality: to be accepted, to earn a decent living doing something respectable, and to stop looking over their shoulder.
For parents especially, it is about their children looking up to them rather than being frightened or ashamed of them. Running your own business, even a small one, is a way to get there. Your customers do not see an ex-con. They see someone offering something they want.
It is also a way to build a different life, with different people and different values, away from the associations that pull you back. That is what we mean by an icon: not someone famous, but a beacon of what good looks like. Someone others can look up to. This is not about making a fast buck. It is about having the power to become that icon.
Why Phoenix Exists
Work changes lives. Ministry of Justice research shows that people in work are far less likely to reoffend. Yet just 17% of people leaving prison find a job within a year, and fewer than half of employers will even consider them. Employability training cannot help if the jobs are not there.
Running your own business means no CVs and no need to disclose your past. Many people have highly marketable skills, learned inside or before, but have never been shown how to sell them. When customers trust you to deliver something they value, you can earn a respectable living on your own terms.
Most enterprise training teaches people about business by asking them to write a business plan full of guesswork. Phoenix is different. It is light on theory and heavy on doing: you build your own business, not a case study, and you test it with real customers from the start.
How Phoenix Works
Every session follows the same tried and tested pattern. We call it the learning burger.
🔄 Look Back
We start by sharing how the week went. Success inspires the group, setbacks become lessons, and quieter voices are drawn in. There is no failure, only learning.
🛠️ Learn a New Tool
The meat in the middle: one practical tool or technique, with no more than 15 to 20 minutes of theory before you put it to work in a group exercise.
✅ Commit to Action
Before you leave, you work out exactly how you will use the tool in your own business, write it down and commit to doing it before the next session.
Your Seven-Week Journey
- It is about you. Finding an authentic business idea that plays to your strengths and passions. No idea yet? That is fine.
- What, who and why. Defining what you offer, who your customers are and why they need it.
- Listen before you sell. Finding your first prospects and testing your idea with them.
- Make sure it makes money. Working out what it takes to deliver, at a price people will pay.
- Reach your customers. A simple marketing plan using free tools and social media.
- Fund and pitch. Customer funding, crowdfunding, grants and loans, and how to pitch with confidence.
- Where next. Your personal action plan, and an introduction to ongoing mentoring and support.
Proven Results
In our pilot with the University of Bristol, nine out of ten participants went on to work, either running their own businesses or in paid employment. Two secured significant funding for a high-growth fintech business, and others built businesses with the potential to create jobs for people facing similar barriers.
Imran, a Phoenix graduate, now runs a multi-million pound business providing sheltered accommodation for people at risk of reoffending.
Peer-reviewed research published in the American Journal of Management found that every single person who completed Phoenix became economically active.
Who It Is For
Phoenix is for anyone with a strong desire to work for themselves and the determination to put in the hard graft. This is not a passive course. Between sessions, you will spend time getting out and testing your ideas with real people.
- You do not need a business idea. We will help you find the one that fits you.
- You do not need qualifications. Dedication matters more than numeracy or literacy, and we will work with you on both.
- You can take part face to face or online, with video coaching.
- We will meet you first, ideally with your probation officer or support worker if you have one. It is not a test, just a chance to make sure Phoenix is right for you.
If you are on probation, we work alongside your offender manager to make sure your business plans support your rehabilitation.
In Their Own Words
I felt really happy. For the first time I have developed something for myself. It enabled me to dream again and believe in myself.
IMRAN, Phoenix participant
Rather than throwing me out as a no hoper, they showed me how to tweak my original idea and mould it around my current circumstances. This is innovation in action.
NAOMI, Phoenix participant
Built on Lived Experience
Phoenix is led by Mark Neild and Leroy McCoy, bringing together teaching expertise and lived experience. Leroy knows the prison system from the inside. While serving his own sentence, he was so successful at preventing suicides among fellow prisoners that the Governor ordered his cell be left unlocked. He brings the same trust and understanding to everyone who joins Phoenix. Mark is an award-winning mentor and Associate Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bristol, who has supported thousands of entrepreneurs in the UK, Africa and Asia.
Phoenix began as a Knowledge Exchange project with the University of Bristol Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. We are grateful for support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery and the National Lottery Community Fund. Phoenix is accredited as an IoEE Academy.
Ready to Rise?
Get in touch to find out more about Phoenix, or to talk about supporting or commissioning it.