Our ninth in-house cohort (l-r): Sumaya, Lily, and Asmaa

Rife supported young people to have their voices heard from 2014 to 2022. 

• We had over 1.1 million visitors to Rife online viewing over 1.7 million pages. 
• We paid and trained 35 content creators, the vast majority of which now work in the creative industries, where they offer fresh ideas that are creating change 
• We reached over 8,000 young people through workshops and events that have been created in partnership with schools and youth organisations and run by Rife peer mentors 
• We hosted 43 work experience students from 19 different schools across Bristol at Rife’s HQ, Watershed 

Rife Magazine ceased publishing new content in Summer 2022. You can read about that decision and our exciting new exploration into supporting young creatives at Watershed. Rife became the starting point for thousands of young people’s creative journeys – their platform, their network, their haven, their biggest fan. Rife also became a place for partnership and collaboration. A place for people to meet, explore, learn, together with other passionate people and organisations, to co-create opportunities and publish work. Although Rife provided a platform, it would have been nothing if it wasn’t for our phenomenal community of people who we got to see flourish and who provided such generosity in their creative contributions.

Our fifth cohort, Ailsa, Aisha and Jasmine

“Rife encouraged us to be our best selves.”

At Rife, the core of our mission was represented by our paid in-house content creator positions. While employed at Rife, young creatives made everything you see on the website, from thought-provoking articles to powerful videos, and promoted it on social media. Often, this was the first creative job our creators had ever held, but that didn’t matter: we didn’t pick people on whether they’ve been to uni or not, or decide if they’d be a good fit based on ‘who they know.’ We picked them because of the enthusiasm and ideas they brought to the table. Over eight years, Rife Magazine trained up and raised the aspirations of over thirty-five content creators across ten cohorts to access creative industries where they offered fresh ideas that create change.  

“I felt valid, and began to understand that what I had to say was important. Only a few years later – I’m writing films and TV shows”

Take emerging filmmaker and former Rifer Yero Timi-Biu. “Being part of the Rife family boosted my confidence socially and professionally,” she says. “I felt valid, and began to understand that what I had to say was important. And only a few years later – I’m writing films and TV shows! It’s crazy.” Or successful illustrator and Rife alumna Jasmine Thompson, who says, “Rife has changed my entire professional practise! It provided us with so much support and guidance, and encouraged us to create content that was relatable and actually mattered to us. Rife encouraged us be our best selves.” 

Our seventh cohort, Euella, Alexie, and Imogen

Even more exciting has been an unexpected consequence of Rife’s content creator roles: the start of a new kind of old boy’s club. The Rife content creators are now a thriving creative community from all sorts of backgrounds who lean on each other’s complementary skills for support, advice and inspiration. At Rife, we keep in contact with them and offer them free post-role training and skill reinforcement, making sure they’re as supported as possible as they get through their first tricky few years as independent creators.

At Rife we also joined forces with other organisations to offer even more opportunities to young people in the West of England. In 2020, we were part of Creative Workforce for the Future, a pilot programme of professional development focusing on inclusion for companies and paid placements for young people. We also co-designed and launched the Meshworks newsletter, which provides content, support and community to enable emerging creatives to thrive in the creative and cultural industries. 

Beyond our content creators and Rife, we still offer work experience that offers an inspiring glimpse of a creative career to students across Bristol whose social networks don’t connect them to the arts industry. In recent years, we have hosted over 50 students from nineteen different schools – and had loads of fun doing it. We also head out to schools, colleges, community organisations and loads of other places to run our creative workshops, reaching over 8,000 young people with our work.