¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!
As RYSE honors our ancestors for Dia De Los Muertos, we invite the community to participate in our digital Altar here. On our hearts and minds in the RYSE community are the members and staff we lost over the years, the ancestors listed below, as well as the community members whose names never got lifted up. From November 1st through the 10th we will have an altar in the space for community members to visit and add the names of their loved ones who have passed away.
A Land Acknowledgement
RYSE member Karina Salmeron contributed both a land acknowledgement on behalf of the Richmond community as well as a poem. For more information on native territories, languages, and treaties, head over to native-land.ca
RYSE Up for Palestine
RYSE expresses our solidarity with the people of Palestine, who are experiencing daily bombing, loss of life, cut off from aid, electricity, fuel, water and food, forced displacement, and ethnic-cleansing. In this moment we lift up Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC), Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and Jewish Voice for Peace as organizations to support. In addition to our solidarity statement, we co-hosted an art-build/vigil with APEN, Communities for a Better Environment and Youth v. Apocalypse. This week we are hosting a solidarity with Palestine youth teach-in (flyer below). We also want to shout out young people at Kennedy High School, who organized their student body by leading a walk out in solidarity with Palestine. Ain't no power like the power of the youth because the power of the youth don't stop!
RYSE Celebrated Our 15th Birthday!
RYSE reached its 15th anniversary and staff and members celebrated in the space, many of us reflecting what it took to get here. Below is a statement by RYSE’s Co-Founder & Executive Director Kimberly Aceves-Iñiguez, as well as a statement and visual piece reflecting on adult allyship and our inner children, and photos from the week-long series of fashion challenges staff and members took part in!
“RYSE is 15 today and Kanwarpal Kaur Dhaliwal and I have been on this path for almost 21 years together.
In partnership with visionary young people and the most beloved and dopest staff on the planet, we have built this magical place within a thick and often exhausting cloud of patriarchy, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and too many system failures to count. And despite it all we have centered love and justice and the most righteous rage.
And there are days like today where the world seems heavy and heartless. And I am left wondering if we have had an impact. Have we moved the dial on our path to collective liberation or are we still in the same place we were 21 years ago?
And even in this wondering I am so grateful for the folks that have held us, grieved with us, struggled with us, trusted us, believed in us, and reminded us who we are when we’re sometimes tired and weary and we forget.
Happy Birthday RYSE Center. Thank you for allowing me to steward this work, I remain humbled and honored.”
-Kimberly Aceves-Iniguez
RYSE 2023 Fall Schedule
RYSE is now deep in the middle of our Fall season, featuring programs and internships spanning art, healing, organizing, music, podcasting, videography, sex ed, and so much more! For more information on how youth ages 13-21 can participate, click the button below.
The Seeds of Change Summit
Youth on Root’s mission is to center low-income youth and youth of color as change agents in their communities by providing tools for learning from each other and opportunities to use their unique power to promote environmental justice. The Summit was a space for high school aged youth from frontline environmental justice communities in California to convene, connect, collaborate, and grow. The theme of the summit was "Putting Down Roots" in honor of frontline BIPOC and low-income youth who have long been and continue to lead the fight for climate justice. Youth on Root felt it important to “root” ourselves in that foundation, by recognizing and uplifting those efforts. RYSE members did a workshop and also built a carbon dioxide removal box. Here's some pictures from the event:
Beyond Youth Organizing & Power (BYOP) Internship
The first month of BYOP was completed! It was amazing & inspiring to be with the new cohort. This past month, youth got to know each other, filling the space with joy and leadership. Pictured here, BYOP Interns Mia & Clover shared their takeaways from the Elevate Youth California (EYC) Convening to their fellow interns by presenting and leading a writing activity. We are excited for the next phases of the cohort!
Tasty Tuesday
This past month, RYSE members hit the kitchen to experiment with a few ideas they thought of. Those ideas included making guac and chips from scratch! They also got in the spooky spirit and made pumpkin cookies, chocolate chip ghost cookies, and chocolate abuelita!!
RYSE Out in the Community!
RYSE staff Lulu and Bryan did some outreach in Richmond at the Latina Center’s ¡Ya basta, sin miedo! Domestic Violence Awareness Benefit Concert, while Ann, Genay, and Rayana had a fun time tabling at Helms Middle School’s Hispanic Heritage Month. Students enjoyed making magnets and were excited to become RYSE members!
Grandma’s Roses Screening
RYSE, along with our amazing partners at Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMOC)/Healing Together Initiative, The CHAT Project, Dream Chase Media, and others hosted a Collective Care screening of Grandma’s Roses, a film by RYSE colleague and kin Jordan Thierry.
Grandma’s Roses uplifts the depth and complexity of the love, care, tenacity, and struggles of grandmothers, of older and elder women in our families and communities… amidst conditions of direct and systemic violence and harm by and within our families, communities, and systems.
“We owe so much to the women who so generously share their experiences, perspectives, and lessons with us in this film. As service providers, public agencies, and community organizations, the film calls on us to better acknowledge and advocate for the need and knowing that restorative community care and accountability is what heals.”
-Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, RYSE Co-Founder & Associate Director
Upcoming
What have you learned from young people about community care? Young people at RYSE have shared that being truly seen and listened to is what care is all about. In recognition of all young people in Contra Costa County who have shared what they are holding, surviving and leading through - RYSE invites you to help us generate a Youth Emergency Fund of $200,000 for the year ahead.
Your donation to the Fund supports the new RYSE Health Justice Center to provide direct support for youth in crisis. The Fund will help uphold RYSE as a resilience and liberation hub - a safe haven for response and reimagination in the face of climate, health and political injustice. For #GivingTuesday on November 28 and beyond, we invite you to:
SAVE THE DATE: RYSE to the Future! Our annual Be a Kid! Fundraiser returns to RYSE on Friday, April 26th, 2024. Come see what the future holds during our 21+ event where grown ups can enjoy being a kid, and can co-create the future that young people in our community deserve. Mark your calendars and look out for ticket sales soon!
Are you a local business or organization interested in sponsoring this event? Learn more here about how your company can be featured and support young people in our community.
New Hires!
We are SO excited to have our new Director of Finance, Stacie Plummer on the team!