After nine years of working alongside children, families, and communities across West Yorkshire, the ROKT Foundation will close following the summer of 2026.
The funding environment for community charities in the UK has become extraordinarily difficult. More than 4,500 charities closed throughout 2025. Grant streams that once sustained organisations like ours have significantly reduced or even disappeared. Statutory funding has not kept pace with need or growth.
We have worked hard to find a sustainable path forward, and we have not been able to find one that allows us to continue at the standard our communities deserve.
ROKT climbing centre, which has operated exclusively for charitable purposes and education since the pandemic, has been a place where real change has happened, using climbing and urban adventure as a catalyst.
Founded in 2017 by Dr Max Euan Noble, the ROKT Foundation was built on a simple but powerful belief: that adventure, physical challenge and genuine belonging have the power to change lives. Based in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, the Foundation created a space where everyone was welcome, where children who had never been given a chance could discover what they were capable of, and where communities could grow stronger together.
The impact we are proud of:
Between 2021 and 2025, across the programmes we delivered:
• 2,593 children taught from 53 schools across West Yorkshire
• 395 children and families with additional needs (SEND) supported through specialist programmes
• 203 children and adults from overseas supported through refugee and asylum seeker programmes
• Over 720 children through 12 Healthy Holidays programmes
• 313 children through early intervention programmes
• 252adults through mental health courses
• Over 260 women through the Moving Through Menopause programme
• 335 children across West Yorkshire learned about financial resilience during the cost of living crisis
• More than 7,000 people through the doors of ROKT
• 20+ partnerships with public, private and third sector organisations across the region
Our CEO, Katie Kinsella, was recognised with the Charity Comms Inspiring Communicator Award and the Government funded Healthy Holidays programme for her work with children with additional needs.
The Foundation received a Points of Light award from the Prime Minister. Every recognition we have received reflects the effort of every single person involved, from our dedicated team to our trustees, patrons, funders and volunteers.
We wish Katie every success in her new role in the visitor economy and events industry from September.
The ROKT Foundation closes, but its impact does not. It lives in every child who discovered they could do something they thought impossible. It lives in every family who found community here. It lives in every person who walked through our doors and left a little more themselves.
Thank you for being part of this.
Max Noble Founder and Trustees – ROKT Foundation (2017-2026)
