“A revolution capable of healing our wounds. If we’re the ones who can imagine it, if we’re the ones who dream about it, if we’re the ones who need it most, then no one else can do it. We’re the ones.”
July is Self Determination Month at RYSE—a month where our programs are focused to helping members reflect upon what it means to step into their power, and to actualize a path to liberation.
Last week, RYSE youth organizers participated in an educational and creative writing workshop called “Stepping Into Our Power: Self-Determination & A Revolution Capable of Healing” facilitated by Kazumi Chin, a Ph D student in Cultural Studies at UC Davis, educator, and organizer. During this workshop, young people learned about past and current organizing movements for self-determination. They read the work of Audre Lorde and Aurora Levins Morales, discussing what could be “a revolution capable of healing our wounds.”
In this month’s blog, we’d like to share with you some of the powerful writing and poems by RYSE youth and staff from this workshop. These are reflections on self-determination and power—on what can be given to ourselves and to our communities—and our collective commitments moving forward.
“Mutual aid seeks to “ [care] for one another … by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.””
We continue to be inspired by the spirit of community self-determination and networks of mutual aid that have emerged in response to the interconnected crises of the pandemic, anti-Black racist violence, and structural, historical divestment. First articulated by 19th century anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin, mutual aid has existed as long as humans have worked cooperatively to meet individual and communal needs.
Mutual aid is a practice of solidarity, not charity, grounded in the knowledge that we are able to meet our shared needs when the state and disaster capitalism is unable and unwilling. Mutual aid seeks to “[care] for one another … by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.” This work has a long legacy, from Indigenous ways of knowing to the Black Panther Party’s Survival Programs. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Young Lord’s occupation of Lincoln Hospital, an insurrectionary strategy to meet communal health needs. Our work to meet the community’s needs through disbursement remain grounded in this spirit of self-determination and collectivism.
We offer these guiding principles as part of the WCC Community Care Coalition:
These resources already belong to our communities.
This is a return of resources, not a payout. A small, small, small disbursement of what is owed, long overdue, and not by any means enough.
We also know that our systems and infrastructure (i.e.capitalism) are not set up to launch a comprehensive disbursement process that can get to all families and individuals right away. This is why we have to transform our systems.
We have to proceed from the painful, unjust, and necessary space that we won’t capture everyone in the first round(s), but need to start somewhere.
We commit to creating and holding a wide, deep, and loving net while we build a more beloved and just ecosystem.
We coordinate, adapt, and build with each other
Mutual Aid
Learn more about community self-determination and mutual aid projects.
Solidarity Not Charity: Mutual Aid & How to Organize in the Age of Coronavirus, Democracy Now
The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs, David Hilliard
Mutual Aid Hub, mapping Mutual Aid efforts in the US
Upcoming Events
Reimagining Safety: Creating Healing-Centered Schools
Thursday, July 30 from 10:15 AM – 12 PM
Join us for a community discussion to reimagine safety in our schools. Share your needs and experiences, envision solutions, and identify the action steps needed to create healing-centered and thriving spaces for the West Contra Costa school community. This event is co-hosted with Dr. Fatima Alleyne, Ph D, Contra Costa County Board of Education, Area 1. In order to protect our space and honor all community voices and safety, we ask that you do not share the zoom link with anyone, everyone should RSVP individually.
Rising Telehealth Behavioral Health Practices
Session 1: Monday, August 3 from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
RYSE Clinical Director, Marissa Snoddy, LMFT, will be co-facilitating a free webinar with Anh Ta, Assistant Director of Trauma Transformed, on how we can partner with and listen to marginalized youth during the telehealth experience of this time. This webinar is one of two sessions presented by The Catalyst Center and The Pacific Southwest MHTTC.
American Public Health Association Webinar on Advancing Racial Equity
Tuesday, August 11 from 9:30 - 11 AM PDT / 12:30 - 2 PM EST
RYSE Associate Director, Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, will be presenting during APHA’s third session of their Advancing Racial Equity series. The webinar will discuss how racism operates in policing and the limitations of reform efforts, and the acute and chronic health impacts of over policing on Black and Latinx communities. Presenters will identify and address the ways in which policing occurs in public health and other sectors, and explain what “Re-Imagining Policing” means for public safety, public health and society overall.
RYSE Presents:
“No Supervision” Podcast
Listen to the first three episodes of RYSE’s first podcast, with the most recent episode featuring RYSE youth member, Carizma Hughes. Hosted by Justiya Reid, Clinical Case Manager, and David Scott, Trauma Response Specialist, “No Supervision” is a podcast about anger and what it has to teach us.
1. 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.
Loma Brewing Company in Los Gatos is brewing an imperial stout as part of the "Black is Beautiful" campaign and has chosen RYSE as a beneficiary. All proceeds from this beer go to RYSE.
2. 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.
3. 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.