“RYSE to the Future,” directed by Stay Diff, tells three intersecting stories of former RYSE members who are now staff. These are just three of many stories that speak to one of RYSE’s core values: Youth Power.
What makes a young person whole?
And how often do the systems they navigate approach them with that question in mind? Is that even the intended question? Is witnessing, acknowledging, and attending to their humanity even the point of these systems?
Today we’re debuting the above “RYSE to the Future” video spotlighting Khai, RYSE’s Studio Technician, Dalia, the Culture and Engagement Program Manager, and Ann, the Youth Power Building Coordinator: all of whom used to be RYSE youth themselves. Coming to RYSE from completely different vantage points, of different cultures, and growing distinctly within RYSE’s Media Arts & Culture, Member Engagement, and Youth Power Building departments respectively, they still tell a story with a clear through-line: they didn’t know they could. Check out the video above to dive into their stories, but know they are not outliers. Thank you to the Lewis Prize for Music for funding this production!
This Spring season, youth leadership is on full display
and this through-line continued. Moments as poignant as Bryan, one of our Health Justice Program Assistants, taking part in planning our week-long 2024 Youth Leadership Institute, when he himself was a RYSE member attending one in 2019. He shared his certificate with staff, anchoring us all in the impact of our work. And sure, the work can be as big and visibly impactful as a plan to take a fleet of buses around Richmond sites for a youth-facilitated environmental tour or featuring youth-led identity workshops in our sprawling campus, but the impact is also as simple as cooking and eating a delicious Japanese curry together. Herbs now making their way from our garden to our kitchen, both spaces actualized by past youth, Bryan’s work stretches farther than just guiding the members through a recipe. And the ingredients he took part in pulling together this month were more expansive than food.
Liberation & Leadership
Youth Power & Resilience
Radical Self Care
Nature & Environmental Justice
All themes (ingredients) for each day of the 2024 Youth Leadership Institute, but also themes that permeated RYSE’s entire April. Scroll below for stories of how these ingredients showed up!.
Youth Leadership Institute
This year’s Youth Leadership Institute found us all in community with young people completely new to RYSE, those returning, those running their own workshops, those that recently became staff, and those that have been on staff for years. This story of youth leadership was palpable and the energy electrifying. Workshops spanning such topics as dance, crafts, organizing, knowing your rights, identity, media literacy, writing, trivia, identity, as well as a Wellness Day featuring reiki, a sound bath, and acupressure provided by the Freedom Community Clinic (FCC), among others. About the latter, a young person exclaimed
“I loved the acupressure clinic because it got me more in touch with myself and how I can improve as a person.”
-FCC survey
The final day of the Youth Leadership Institute was a Toxic Tour in collaboration with our partners Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and its interns. The tour took us all around Richmond to visit historic and industrialized sites, as well as sites that have been a beautiful result of our communities coming together for a cleaner and healthier Richmond. Half of the tour was youth-led, detailing the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, Levin Terminal, United Heckathorn Superfund Site, Wildcat Creek, Peres Elementary, and Unity Park and how the layouts and proximities of these communal spaces affect residents.
THANK YOU FOR CELEBRATING BE A KID! 2024 WITH US!
From everyone here at RYSE, we’d like to thank you for attending Be a Kid! RYSE to the Future last Friday. We had a lot of fun and hope you did too! ⠀
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We successfully raised over $60,000 for RYSE’s Youth Emergency Care Fund. With your contribution, we are able to provide timely and direct funds to young people to access basic human rights – safe housing, food, and health services. ⠀
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For more info on our Youth Emergency Fund, head to bit.ly/rysecare
QUEST 4 DEMOCRACY
Quest 4 Democracy is an annual lobbying event that happens at the Capitol where organizations come together, connected and united in collective power, community struggle, and advocate for bills affecting racial and economic justice.⠀
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Late last month we invited youth to gain experience in lobbying for bills & policies, network with different orgs and legislators, receive collective trainings on bills + the day of experience, and share personal experiences and advocate for bills affecting racial justice. Click here to learn more about the organizers. A RYSE member on the visit was quoted saying
”I could relate to this bill because my uncle went through the same process almost. He did his time, did bad things, stupid things, you know, hanging with the wrong people. He got out and went through the whole, how do you say it, the whole process of applying to jobs? But no one would take them. So, like, I feel like if this bill was back then, you know, like early nineties, two thousands, it would have pushed them in the right direction”
San Pablo Scholarship Grant: The Talk
The City of San Pablo gave RYSE Members Mia, Lupe, & Esteban a grant to explore the topics of mental health & education pathways after high school! They held their event “The Talk,” popped up at the RYSE-housed program Zymbolic, touching on higher education, transferring, HBCU’s, & trade schools! A big shoutout to Myles and Cruz from Zymbolic for being panelists and major shoutout to RYSE’s Education Engagement Advocate, Evelin for supporting the group in planning the event, supporting logistics and being on the panel as well!
CULTURE BUILDERS
A new generation of RYSE Culture Builders, a program that has been around since RYSE’s early days, are beginning to take on their roles in this expanding campus. The Culture Builders are RYSE youth who support other members in navigating the space and get trained in Restorative Justice and non-violent communications practices. Supervised by Dalia Ramos Mucino, RYSE’s Culture & Engagement Program Manager, and run by Rayana, Butler our Member Engagement Coordinator, both former Culture Builders, this years-long program is meant to inspire youth leadership and actualize our intention of meeting young people where they’re at. This month the Culture Builders came up with a design for their cohort’s hoodie (pictured to the left)!
“What drew me to become a culture builder was the ability to assist the RYSE and Richmond community again. I am also glad to know I am working at an organization that administers resources to its community.”
-Nico, RYSE Culture Builder
RYSE DCT-P Program
Housing justice is among a list of RYSE’s evolving long-term focuses. As described in a recent article by PR Newswire, Contra Costa County, through RYSE, is one of eight communities chosen to enact the intervention Direct Cash Transfers as Prevention (DCT-P), which “builds on the success of the Homeless Prevention and Diversion Fund (HPDF) model developed by A Way Home Washington in 2020, which found that 93% of the young people who received one-time payments ranging from $1,000-$2,000 did not return to homelessness after 12 months.”
RYSE completed over a dozen referrals so far, including at least 8 completed intakes, 6 payments have been disbursed, 1 young person was connected to 211 and was able to get resources to Job Corp and will be attending at the end of the month, 4 participants has had their housing stabilized, and 1 participant got a new apartment!
For more information, reach out to RYSE’s Health Justice Case Manager, Randy Joseph at randy@rysecenter.org.
RECLAIM EARTH DAY
A group largely made up of Youth Power Building Coordinator, Ann Guiam’s interns from Beyond Youth Power & Organizing took action earlier this month in the streets of SF for Reclaim Earth Day! Appreciations to Youth Power Building Assistant, Clover Marie Alejandro for supporting and taking care of youth during the protest! And appreciation to our partner orgs we attended in collaboration with, Youth v Apocalypse, young people who lead this event for years, and Reimagine Richmond! YvA said it best:
We know it’s our duty as climate justice organizers in the belly of the beast to put pressure on the people in power to ensure liberation for the masses of people, both here on Turtle Island and around the world.
This is why a large coalition of youth leaders and environmental movement organizers have come together to organize an Earth Day action centering Palestine, Sudan, and Congo - three countries going through massive violence at the hands of western imperialism. The youth say no more! Our liberation is directly connected to the liberation of all people around the world.
New positions are available at RYSE! If you or someone you know is interested, click the button above for more information.
Are you interested in the ways racism is used to manipulate the legal system? Do you know someone who is?⠀
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We invite you to join us at the RYSE Center for a free screening and panel discussion of the short film "Judging Juries," an exploration of racism in the jury selection process. Directed by Abby Ginzberg, who will be in attendance with such guests as District Attorney Diana Becton, Public Defender Ellen McDonnell, Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, and Dr. Kerby Lynch, we will examine how these issues affect our justice system and explore community-based solutions.⠀