Beloved Community,
This Fall season was and is one of RYSE’s most notable yet. Full of change and reflection, the season was accentuated by both RYSE’s 13th Birthday as well as staff returning to in-person work inside of a nearly completed, new RYSE building and ever-evolving RYSE Commons Campus. With the pandemic fast approaching the two year mark, we cocooned in the virtual space for over a year, preparing for seismic shifts in what RYSE looks like, how it operates, and what it has to offer. Inhabiting this physical space, while in its final stages of active construction, made the cocooning all the more real: we are here and this is happening.
3939 Bissell Ave, Richmond CA. This is happening.
Just a few years prior young folks poured their expertise and imaginations into an idea that is now a tangible space we exist in. It is a physical testament to our mission as an organization. With the Grand Opening still ahead of us (save the date for May 14th welcoming and May 20th Be A Kid!) RYSE isn’t yet open for drop-in programming. Instead, in addition to staff, we formed youth cohorts, small teams picking up the latest baton in imagining the space’s potential. Furniture, art, house agreements, safety and many other topics circulated around rooms filled with youth, as they constructed the spirit of the building as physical sections of it blossomed in real time. The music studio, meditation room, theater space, basketball court, media suite, computer lab, elevator, gender-neutral bathrooms among many other features all came alive around us, gearing up to bloom in the Spring.
Workshops, events, celebrations, new beginnings filled up our Fall: all of which you can see below.
Warmly,
Temba, RYSE Communications Manager
RYSE is 13
We are Thirteen.
A teenager.
A BIPOC teenager.
Multigendered, mutliqueer, multilingual, multi-talented, multi-skilled, multi-burdened.
From multiple lands residing on stolen lands.
From RYSE Center to RYSE Commons
Here by enslavement, exploitation, by unseen and unpaid labor.
Here by love, rage, resistance, and liberation.
Ready to take on the risks necessary for our survival and transformation, while still needing love, connection, and nurturing. A safe and welcoming home base.
Ready to explore our identities, our relationships, our politics.
Needing to be able to play, celebrate, and be joyous
A whole life ahead, sometimes feeling like a whole life has already been lived.
Full of possibilities and fears, the time in our development where our courage is at its’ height.
Where our visions are not hampered by adult expectations. Where we imagine ourselves into adulthood.
Resisting the adultification and policing of our adolescence
Grappling with the changes to our bodies, seeking affirmation, needing protection from the judgement and onslaught of unrealistic expectations, even and especially when its’ our own.
Wondering WTF is going on with the adults responsible for us. What happened to them? What makes them so out of tune and out of touch? How can they get help?
Always remembering what Uncle Huey said- “The revolution has always been in the hands of the young...”
Happy Birthday RYSE. Towards Revolution. For all our liberation.-Kimberly & Kanwarpal, Co-Founders of RYSE
A collaborative poem written and performed by RYSE members Sheila, Destiny, Adriana, & Jordan dedicated to RYSE’s 13th birthday!
Below, in celebration of RYSE’s 13th, departments split up into teams for an Instagram challenge broadcasted to our community, who voted for their favorites in our IG Stories.
We’re in the Building!
RYSE members and staff established Reopen Work Groups to begin further conceptualizing the new building, campus, and rooms and their rules, protocols, and layouts. This months-long process ended with group presentations of all we imagined.
RYSE put together a scavenger hunt as we got acclimated to the new building. The exercise helped staff get more familiar with ALL it has to offer before we officially came into the space on the day-to-day and well before we start conducting tours ourselves.
La Feria
On Septermber 13th RYSE celebrated the 6th annual La Feria event! La Feria de Septiembre engages, inspires, and highlights contributions made by the Latinx and Afro-Latinx community, while bridging cultural gaps, and connecting the diverse, multiracial and multicultural mosaic of our past, present, and future. Xicanx/Afro-Latinx heritage does not solely live in the past; it influences how we experience the present, and how we will go on to shape our shared future. This year we celebrated a COVID-safe La Feria with limited staff and members in RYSE Commons’ new outdoor area!
RYSE Fall Open Programming
SPEAK Poet is hybrid writing and performance based workshop for ages 13-21. This season we are focusing on art, activism, and our own lived experiences.
RYSE aims to provide a safe and positive space where youth and community members can comfortably learn about all aspects of sexuality and safe sex. Sex positivity at RYSE looks like affirming that sex can be a healthy part of human life that shouldn’t be shamed or stigmatized. Let’s Talk About Sex is a workshop dedicated to just that.
The Alphabet Group here at RYSE Youth Center is an open program for youth ages 13-21. This group is a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth and Allies and live in Contra Costa County, Richmond/San Pablo or surrounding area
Videography 101 Cohort is a safe place designed to equip a young person with the necessary skills to utilize videography as a storytelling framework. Young people will get the full experience of storytelling as they explore different forms of media and platforms for telling personal and community stories.
Stay tuned for our Spring 2022 Program Schedule! Email us at info@rysecenter.org for more information.
Highlights
“Lessons in Liberation” is a collection brought together by the Education for Liberation Network and Critical Resistance to create bridges between abolition and education and to highlight existing organizing efforts. Featured are RYSE members/alumni Ann, Geo, and Dulce! Find it here.
The Photo Voice project was created in collaboration with Richmond Promise as way to capture and narrate the experiences of young people in higher education. The idea was for youth to have an opportunity to share their identities and individual experiences/challenges in higher education. All of the participants were given a 35mm camera that they could utilize for this project to capture their images. While most of the images were taken here in California, some participants also took images outside of the state such as Minnesota and we even had a participant that took their camera to Guatemala! This gallery contains the images that youth took for this project and they encapsulate their experiences of navigating higher education through their unique perspective and identities. Click here to view a virtual gallery featuring work from the project.
RYSE youth cohort EJAR (Education Justice Action Research) engaged with some teachings from Grace Lee Boggs, reflecting on the nuances between critical mass and critical connections. Youth were prompted to use strings to build a movement ecosystem metaphor without much guidance or strategy. Then they wiggled strings to assess if movement in one strand (e.g. youth mental health advocacy) had impacts or influence on other strands (e.g. police abolition) in our model ecosystem. We examined the ecosystem for connection, alignment, and isolation. Reflecting on the need for critical connections, then we adjusted the network to build more connections and expand movement, metaphorically and literally!
RYSE is honored to be a finalist for the The Lewis Prize for Music Accelerator Award for youth music programs!
Shoutout to our Nonprofit Partner of the Game, @RYSEyouthcenter!
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) August 29, 2021
RYSE nurtures youth leadership, social justice, culture in Richmond and West Contra Costa with dynamic art, education, justice, and leadership programs.https://t.co/gXgF3wmkcM | @kpnorcal pic.twitter.com/sY927qaoZl
HALLOWEEN 2021
RYSE Celebrated (a COVID-safe) Halloween with costumes and candy, all leading up to a costume contest at the end of the day! Above are the finalists as well as Dan, an honorary mention.
RYSE is Hiring!
RYSE is hiring! As we transition into the blossoming RYSE Commons campus, we are looking to fill positions that include a Clinical Supervisor, Development & Donor Engagement Associate, Video Production Coordinator, Music Production Coordinator, and Performing Arts Coordinator.
If you or someone you know is interested, click any of the buttons above or share the link rysecenter.org/jobopenings with your network!
COVID-19 Messages
Both RYSE’s Community Health, Media Arts & Culture, and Communications departments collaborated on a COVID awareness series dedicated specifically to informing students returning to in-person learning about the precautions to take at this phase of the pandemic. Click the images below to view full posts!
Let’s Talk About Sex & Covid: RYSE aims to provide a safe and positive space where youth and community members can comfortably learn about all aspects of sexuality and safe sex. Sex positivity at RYSE looks like affirming that sex can be a healthy part of human life that shouldn’t be shamed or stigmatized. We affirm the choices others make regarding sex, even if those choices are different from the ones we would make (as long as those choices are safe and consensual). Additionally we aim to inform youth on up to date information about the best ways to stay safe. RYSE is here to provide COVID-19 education and support for youth in all areas of health and wellness including Sexual Health.
What is the COVID-19 Delta Variant? What makes it different? What can we do to protect ourselves from it? And what does that say about future variants? Here's a message and some tips from RYSE about best practices and resources in Contra Costa County! As the pandemic reaches new heights, we all must stay informed.
As young people get reacclimated to school this week, here's a message and some tips from RYSE about best practices and resources in Contra Costa County. You all are navigating an extremely unique experience and it's important you keep these things in mind! We're all we've got and as long as we look out for each other, we'll push through this.
As we transition from Summer to Fall, The Delta Variant is in the top 99% of COVID cases in the United States. RYSE and John Muir Health have partnered together to continue to bring you the most up to date information on physical wellness, emotional support, and sexual health needs for youth and our community at large. And given the recent and significant surge, in this latest edition of our Ask-a-Doc collaboration, Dr. Tiffany McClure is here to share with us current information on how to protect yourself from the Delta Variant!
Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is on Tuesday 11/30, and RYSE is so grateful to all who have given to young people’s visions for Richmond, West Contra Costa County and the Bay Area over the past 13 years.
RYSE continues to root down to ryse up. We are reflecting on the leadership, care, and vision shared by RYSE young people, staff and community over this past year(s), as we are looking forward toward the future of our city and the Bay Area. Toward liberation for BIPOC young people and their families.
We invite you to invest in youth power and support safe spaces for youth leaders to heal, be creative, and build systems that meet their needs and dreams. RYSE Commons will be this space. Please join in this movement with a Giving Tuesday gift, as a sustaining donor, or with gifts of stock. rysecenter.org/donate