Model and Strategy
The RYSE Youth Center provides an array of holistic education and health programming, leadership, career development, and media and technology training at no charge to low-income youth ages 13-21 in Richmond and surrounding communities. Young people connect to RYSE through word-of-mouth, internships, events; referrals from schools, probation, hospitals, foster care and other systems - arriving to an inviting and welcoming environment that meets youth where they’re at.
RYSE exists because young people of color dreamed and demanded a safe space outside school to build positive relationships, heal amidst trauma and systemic harm, and organize to change conditions. Their vision for equity guides RYSE strategy in all ways. Our approach ranges from direct services/care/opportunities to systems change in order to concretely ensure young people have the resources they need today and that a future with strong, healthy, united communities is being created centering young people of color’s talents and priorities.
“If more of RYSE existed, people would get a lot of chances; kids like us would have opportunities to pick what they want to be in life.” - RYSE Member
Impact
RYSE’s Theory of Liberation, 5-Year Impact Plan, and aligned metrics aim for the following goals: 1) Young people feel loved with the emotional, physical, political safety to acquire skills and resources they need to change inequities, and 2) Systems are transformed to be safe, loving, welcoming, and responsive to youth of color. Our approach supports the most disadvantaged youth in overcoming barriers to their education, employment and economic goals and cultivating wellbeing for youth and their families. For systems change to be rooted in youth leadership, young people need safety, ownership, and representation.
These outcomes respond to young people’s direct recommendations for countering conditions of trauma and establishing the conditions they need:
1) More caring adult relationships with guidance, love and predictability
2) More paths for creative expression to explore new ideas, to heal using their own narratives and to better understand each other
3) More spaces, supports, and resources for connection, especially when grappling with issues of acute danger, threat, distress and harm
With a youth-designed space and a staff team that is 98% people of color and 33% former youth members, we expect to double the number of young people and their families engaged annually. The “RYSE Commons” campus will allow RYSE to: Expand services to young adults ages 11-24 and hours to 7 days a week; Effectively engage parents, guardians, and support systems; Create needed space for community convenings; Increase access to critical health care services; Provide long term lease agreements to youth-serving partners; Expand workforce development programming; Generate earned income for sustainability; and incubate youth-driven micro-enterprises and local start-ups.
Leadership
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Kimberly Aceves-Iñiguez
Co-Founder & Executive Director
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Kanwarpal Dhaliwal
Co-Founder & Associate Director