Build Up Fitness (BUF): Empowering Young Adults Impacted by Mass Incarceration

Build Up Fitness (BUF) is a new California nonprofit built on one belief: strength changes everything — not just bodies, but lives.

We work with young adults who have grown up inside instability, system-involvement, trauma, poverty and limited opportunity. Many of them want out of the cycles they were born into, but have no map, no margin for error, and no safe community to help them climb.

BUF creates that community.

We are building a nonprofit personal-training gym in San Francisco that does three things:

RIGHT NOW: Help Us Cover Our Founding Coach's Certification

We've found our founding head coach — and he's exactly who we've been looking for, hello Jarreau! He and I have been talking about this for almost a year, and now we are doing it!!

He's trained clients for 8 years at a similar gym on the East Coast, working with young adults whose lives have been impacted by incarceration. He doesn't just understand the mission academically — he's lived it. He knows what it means to rebuild after the system has written you off. He knows the specific barriers our apprentices will face because he's faced them himself.

Jarreau's relocating to San Francisco (from elsewhere in CA:) in 2026 to build BUF with us. He's got the coaching skills, the lived experience, and and passion for this work in his bones.

What he doesn't have yet: his NASM personal training certification.

Like many people who've been system-involved, he's had to prioritize survival over credentials. He's been studying with outdated materials because that's what he could access. He's getting the new books in January and taking his NASM exam in March — and we're investing $1,313 in his Premium Self-Study package with Study Coach support and Job Guarantee.

Your donations help us cover this cost and remove exactly the kind of barrier BUF exists to eliminate.

This is exactly how we're building our team: people who bring both expertise and authenticity, who've done their own work and are ready to help others do theirs.

This is how movements start: one coach, one certification, one community willing to invest in potential over polish.

Important: BUF is incorporated as a California Public Benefit nonprofit and has obtained its EIN. Our 501(c)(3) application is underway. Donations are not yet tax-deductible, but will become retroactively deductible once our application is approved.

While we complete our banking and tax-exempt setup, your contributions remain securely in GoFundMe. Once our nonprofit account opens, every dollar moves directly into BUF's mission-related expenses.

Beyond certification costs, your support helps us:

Secure launch space for our July 2026 outdoor activation

Purchase essential gym equipment

Build curriculum and support for our apprentices

Open BUF's doors in 2027

Thank you for standing with us at the very beginning. This is the ground-floor moment — and your support helps us build a place where young adults can finally build strength, build stability, and build up their futures.

How You Can Help

Donate — any amount moves us forward

Share this page with your community

Cheer us on — belief counts too

Thank you for supporting this work, believing in our young people, and believing in the future of San Francisco.

With gratitude,

Sarah + Jarreau

Build Up Fitness

www.buildupfitness.org