Back to School: Reimagining Safety, Connection, and Healing

RYSE sends our love and support to parents, caregivers, students, and educators as we collectively navigate a new school year during a pandemic.

For this month’s blog, we’re focusing on Education Justice, spotlighting the ways in which RYSE youth leaders are leading the way to reimagining safety and liberation in our schools, and reminding the community of the academic resources available for young people at RYSE.

We will move forward with patience and determination. We will work hard while also giving ourselves and each other permission to rest. We are in this together, and because we are powerful and beloved, we will make it through this.


Reimagining Safety in Schools:
Youth Leader Spotlights

 
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Stephanie Garcia Avila

Congratulations to Stephanie who recently became the new Student Board Representative on the WCCUSD School Board! We’re inspired by Stephanie’s avid leadership in advocating for young people’s safety and healing in schools. Most recently, Stephanie was a student panelist on Richmond Revolution’s “Where Do We Go From Here: A Discussion on Campus Safety in WCCUSD.” With other RYSE youth, she co-organized and led a virtual Youth Town Hall focused on collecting input from her peers on finalizing a grading system that would support and meeting both students and teachers’ needs during distance learning. For RYSE’s recent “Reimagining Safety: Creating Healing Centered Schools” community discussion, which you can read more about below, she was the breakout room facilitator for a conversation on reimagining campus security.

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Dawit Vasquez-Suomala

Thank you Dawit for all of your work advocating for African American and Black students as a WCCUSD Student Board Representative. This summer. Dawit coordinated and facilitated a Youth Task Force to support the school district with a reopening plan, including continuing to advocate for ethnic studies courses during this time. Like Stephanie, Dawit was instrumental in the leadership of the Youth Town Hall advocating for the needs of both students and educators. For “Reimagining Safety: Creating Healing Centered Schools,” Dawit was the breakout host for a deeper discussion on building healthy relationships and connection during this time of distance learning and social distancing. Along with Stephanie and other RYSE youth organizers, Dawit co-wrote and secured a grant from America’s Promise Alliance to fund their awareness campaign and fundraiser for youth with special education needs during this time.

Creating Healing Centered Schools

 
 

On July 30th, RYSE and Dr. Fatima Alleyne hosted “Reimagining Safety: Creating Healing Centered Schools,” a community discussion to reimagine safety in schools and begin building plans and solutions for a thriving school community. The event was attended by youth, parents, guardians, community organizations, elected officials, and school staff including teachers, principals, counselors, and campus security.

Just as when we advocated for the Positive School Climate Policy that was implemented in 2017, RYSE will continue to build opportunities for stakeholders to collaboratively development strategies for transformative safe, healing, and just schools. For more information, email Education & Justice Program Director, Stephanie Medley at Stephanie@rysecenter.org.


Free Academic Support

RYSE provides academic and advocacy supports to WCCUSD students year-round.

  • Planning, Goal Setting, Time Management

  • Know Your Student Rights

  • Support in Conversations about School Discipline

  • Applying for College & Financial Aid

  • Financial Literacy & Budgeting

  • Advocacy for Students in Special Education and Students with IEPs

  • Advocating for School Resources

  • Enrolling in School

For academic support, please email Luis@rysecenter.org.
For advocacy support, please email Deysi@rysecenter.org.

I believe that most students need a specific environment to feel motivated to complete their work or education, trying to use a room meant for being comfortable & being their safe place can be interrupted by the stre.png

Racial Reckoning Virtual Series

 

On August 18th, RYSE and Trauma Transformed hosted the first part of a two part series “Revealing the Racial Harms of Public Education and the School to Prison Pipeline” with Dr. Tia Martinez, JD. The webinar set the grounding for the conversation by detailing the socioeconomic context and factors leading to the creation of the school to prison pipeline.

This series reckons with and reflects on how white supremacy, anti-blackness, and class oppression pervades every aspect of public education, and is a space for White People, Black People, and Non-Black People of Color to consider their differentiated roles and tasks in the work of dismantling toxic systems.


Upcoming Events

 

Disrupting Upstream Determinants of Family and Community Violence in the Era of COVID-19
Wednesday, September 16 at 12 PM

RYSE Associate Director Kanwarpal Dhaliwal will be speaking on a panel on the interventions, protections, and liberatory supports needed to aid survivors of violence in communities of color during the pandemic. Hosted by the California Initiative for Health Equity and Action.

California Alliance for Arts Education:
Student Role and Participation in Advocacy

Wednesday, September 30 from 3:30 - 5 PM

RYSE Youth Poet Adriana will be co-facilitating this webinar with other youth leaders from around the state, including ACLU’s Arts Fellow, and members from GenUp. Join them to learn strategies and tools to involve and collaborate with students. This webinar is part of the California Alliance for Arts Education, Arts Now Leadership Institute.


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New 2020 Census Deadline:
September 30, 2020

Our voices count. So let’s ensure that we’re fully counted in the 2020 Census.

The new deadline gives us only until September 30th to complete the Census. Filling out the form takes only a moment and will impact the ways our communities are resourced for the next decade.

Complete the Census by Phone:
(844) 330 - 2020


 
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Double your impact by donating to RYSE through the Travis Credit Union Foundation's COVID-19 Relief Initiative. Every gift made to RYSE through their giving portal will be MATCHED up to $20,000. Double your giving→

Support local businesses fundraising for RYSE. Supple Skincare in Albany is selling handmade face masks to raise $10,000 for RYSE. 100% of proceeds go to RYSE. Stay safe, wear a mask→

Ask your employer to invest in next generation leaders. We're grateful to our advocates working in companies like Genentech and Google who have asked them to make or match a donation. Get the conversation started with your workplace today.


Highlights

It’s during extreme and difficult times like these—while we balance working to support youth and their families, while also taking care of ourselves—that we need to ground ourselves in what deserves celebration. It is what we hold onto through all of our joy, rage, grief, and hope that keeps us going until we emerge on the other side. Here are a few things that we’re holding onto in this moment.