A Petersfield father has raised £150 of £2,500 to put 20 boys on jiu-jitsu mats in Waterlooville. The appeal closes 16 October and nothing is running yet.
A Petersfield father is raising £2,500 to put 20 boys and young men through a free Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mentoring programme, at an academy in Waterlooville, about ten miles south of the town.
Matthew Harris is building The FitStory Foundation, which he describes as a social enterprise for disengaged and at-risk boys aged 7 to 17. His Crowdfunder page had raised £150 from two supporters when we read it on 7 September, and it closes at 7.02pm on 16 October 2026. It is a keep-what-you-raise campaign, so there is no all-or-nothing threshold.
Be clear about the stage this is at, because the fundraising page is a pitch for something that does not exist yet. Harris told us so himself, in answer to our questions.
Sessions are not running yet. The immediate aim is to fund the first 20 boys and young men onto the mats, get some amazing results, then build from there in a way that is sustainable and properly supported.
Where it would happen, and what it would cost
The pilot would be delivered by Gorilla Grapplers, at 1 The Clock House, London Road, Waterlooville, PO7 7HE. The academy was established in 2021 and its founder, Adam Gunning, is a first degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, according to the club’s own website. Harris described the partnership to us like this.
Gorilla Grapplers is an established Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy run by Adam Gunning, with black-belt-level coaching and a massive Jiu-Jitsu community behind it.
The £2,500 works out at roughly £125 a place. Harris told us the money is meant to take the price out of the decision entirely.
That funding from the CrowdFunder initially is intended to remove the financial barriers that can stop a young person taking part, covering access to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaching, mentoring and the practical costs connected to taking part in the programme, including the uniform and travel costs if they live out of area.
The Crowdfunder page sets out five things the total is earmarked for:
- equipment and uniforms
- venue and programme delivery costs
- insurance, safeguarding, DBS and CIC administration
- coaching and mentoring delivery costs
- FitStory Awards and pilot materials
What is not in place yet
We asked Harris directly whether the foundation was registered, and as what. His answer was straightforward.
The FitStory Foundation is currently in its launch and development phase. The intention is to establish it as a Community Interest Company (CIC), but it has not yet been incorporated. It is not currently a registered charity or limited company, so there is no registration number at this stage.
That checks out. A search of the Companies House register on 7 September returns no company of that name, and the Charity Commission register returns no result for “fitstory” at all. So donations at this stage are going to an unincorporated project rather than to a registered charity or company, and the CIC set-up is one of the things the money is intended to pay for.
Two other gaps are worth stating plainly:
- No start date. The Crowdfunder page says: “We do not currently have a delivery date, but we will keep you informed as we build this.”
- No named referral partners. Harris says he is in discussion with schools, youth services and community organisations, but none have been named to us, so we are not naming any. The Crowdfunder page describes an intention to work with youth organisations, alternative provision, schools and community hubs across Leigh Park, Waterlooville and Petersfield.
Safeguarding is the question that matters most for a project aimed at children, and the honest position is that it is on the funding list rather than in place: insurance, safeguarding and DBS sit in the same line of the budget as the CIC paperwork. Anyone considering a donation, or a place for a young person later on, should ask what has actually been arranged before anything starts.
Why jiu-jitsu, in his words
Harris has written publicly about his own childhood, and it is the reason the project exists. On the fundraising page he says he grew up in a family shaped by abuse and violence, that by 17 he was using drugs daily, and that he believed he would end up in prison or dead. He says he began turning things around at 20, and he puts that down to two things.
Movement AND Mentors. Not one or the other. Both.
His argument for the sport itself is that a mat teaches things a conversation cannot.
On the mats, they will struggle. They will lose. They will get frustrated. They will be put under pressure. And they will learn to keep going.
Harris is also the author of a book, The Unhealed Man, which the page says is published later this year. The foundation and the book are separate things, and this piece is about the foundation.
On what he wants it to become, he told us:
I want people to recognise The FitStory Foundation in a few months time as the fastest growing social enterprise working with disengaged youth in the south.
That is an ambition, not a record. Nothing has been delivered yet.
What it means for you
If you want to support it, the campaign is on Crowdfunder until 16 October. Because it is keep-what-you-raise, money pledged is passed on whether or not the £2,500 is reached, so the pilot could run at a smaller scale than advertised if the total falls short.
If you are a parent hoping to get a young person a place, there is nothing to apply to yet. There is no sign-up, no waiting list and no date. We asked what would need to happen for Petersfield young people to take part; the answer we have is that travel costs for those living out of area are included in what the money would cover.
What already exists, today, is the academy itself. Gorilla Grapplers runs its own junior classes for ages 5 to 16 from Monday to Thursday at 5.15pm, plus a family open mat on Sunday mornings, and offers a free trial class, according to its junior classes page. Those are paid classes run by the club and are nothing to do with the foundation, but they are the thing a Petersfield parent could actually book this week.
We will follow this up when the foundation is incorporated, when a delivery date is set, or when the campaign closes on 16 October.
More local information: things to do in Petersfield and Petersfield news.
Sources
- The FitStory Foundation Crowdfunder page, read 7 September 2026
- Gorilla Grapplers and its junior classes and timetable pages
- Companies House company search and the Charity Commission register of charities, both searched 7 September 2026
- Written answers from Matthew Harris to questions from Petersfield Online, 3 and 6 September 2026
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