Arise Society is a community-rooted, youth-focused non-profit based in Orai, Jalaun (Uttar Pradesh), created with a simple belief: when people have access to books, mentors, and practical skills, they gain the confidence and capability to shape their own futures. We exist to open doors—first to learning, then to livelihoods—so that a child’s potential is not limited by family income, geography, or language. Our mission is concise and uncompromising: learning for all, skills for life. In practice, that means two intertwined streams of work. The first is our Free Library movement—welcoming, distraction-free spaces where students and lifelong learners can read, study, and ask questions. The second is our YUVA Setu skill initiative—hands-on courses that connect youth to employability, entrepreneurship, and dignity of work. Together, these programs form a bridge from curiosity to competence, and from competence to opportunity.

Arise Society grew out of conversations with students and parents who were looking for more than classroom instruction: they wanted safe spaces to study after school, guidance on career choices, and practical exposure to the tools and skills demanded by today’s economy. We started by building a library environment that feels both aspirational and accessible—quiet reading corners, group tables for peer study, curated shelves for competitive exams, and a digital nook for e-books and basic internet research. Over time, the library evolved into a community learning hub where volunteers host book circles, board exam clinics, and mentorship hours. The heart of the experience is still the same: a learner walking in freely and leaving with a little more clarity, confidence, and content mastery than before.

On the skills front, YUVA Setu (“a bridge for youth”) is our response to the unmet demand for practical, job-relevant training in smaller towns and rural blocks. We design short, modular courses that are immediately useful, locally relevant, and doable alongside school or college schedules. Our offerings include Sewing & Tailoring, Domestic Electrician and basic Solar awareness, Computer Fundamentals and MS Office, Typing and Internet Safety, Communication and Employability skills, and project-based problem solving. Each course blends demonstration with practice, and culminates in a small real-world assignment—stitching a garment to specification, wiring mock circuits safely, building a clean résumé, or creating a basic spreadsheet for a local shop. Where possible, we invite practitioners and trainers to co-teach, so that learners hear the language of the workplace and understand the expectations of customers and employers.

Partnerships multiply our impact. We collaborate with local schools and colleges to host workshops, run clubs, and integrate project-based learning. We align with district officials and training institutions to ensure our courses complement—not duplicate—existing government schemes. We work with professionals who volunteer a few hours each month to mentor students, conduct mock interviews, or explain the basics of financial literacy and entrepreneurship. For donors and CSR partners, we maintain a transparent model: each rupee supports specific components—books, furniture, lab kits, trainer honoraria, or student scholarships—and we document outputs and outcomes with attendance logs, assessments, and placement or micro-enterprise follow-ups. This discipline builds trust and helps us learn quickly from what works and what doesn’t.

At its core, Arise Society is a promise—to the child who loves stories but lacks a quiet corner, to the teenager who fixes things but needs structure and safety to turn talent into trade, and to the parent who wants their children to study a little longer and stand a little taller. We are not solving every problem, but we are solving the ones within our reach, one table, one toolkit, and one learner at a time. If a visitor drops in on any given afternoon, they will find a scene that explains us better than any brochure: a room lit by soft daylight; shelves of well-thumbed books; a trainer guiding a small group through a practical task; and a circle of students helping each other, laughing, and trying again. That is Arise Society—a place where reading meets relevance, where skills meet purpose, and where young people gather the courage and competence to rise.