Our Core Services

RIFT WISE Project

What is WISE

WISE (Women into Self-Employment) is a pioneering initiative by RIFT Social Enterprise. It’s designed to build, deliver, and evaluate a self-employment offer tailored specifically for women with convictions in the female prison estate. The aim is to understand the unique barriers they face, test solutions, and co-create support that truly works.

DREAMS: A RIFT WISE Film

DREAMS is a powerful short film created in collaboration with the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) and Media Trust. It shares the voices of women from our award-winning WISE Project, highlighting their resilience and the role of self-employment in building new futures.

We’re proud that DREAMS has been officially selected for the 2025 Big Syn International Film Festival, the world’s largest sustainability film festival aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Watch below.

"When you’re on your own you don’t feel you have the will or the strength to do it. WISE offers that support."

WISE Particpant, HMP Send

Impact So Far

Through WISE, we’ve already achieved important milestones:

Shaped by Lived Experience

Gathering direct input from women to shape support that reflects real experiences, not assumptions.

Transforming Prison Practice

Influencing staff culture and embedding self-employment support into daily operations.

Driving Policy and Impact

Producing evidence and recommendations that contribute to better outcomes and systemic change.

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Vision

Our vision is a system where women with convictions are not excluded from opportunities to build a future through self-employment. We want to influence policy and practice so that support is respectful, realistic, and responsive. Ultimately, we aim for a prison system and wider society where a conviction is not a barrier to achieving one’s potential in business.

“Building their confidence, giving them first-hand accounts on people that have done it, been in their shoes, got the ticket and cracked on. I think we should continue to do stuff like that because it was really beneficial.”

Prison Employment Lead

Get Involved

For more information about the WISE project, to read the evaluation, or to explore collaboraton opportunities, please contact Jemma, Project Lead.