Turón, tulum, lumpia, spring rolls, punipuri, mango lasi, and thai tea aromas filled the kitchen toward the end of May at RYSE. This Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Month came with intention. The end result was a vibrant AAPI Spirit Week capped off with our first inaugural Asian Rysing: Double the Happiness, Double the Fun cultural event, but all of that vibrance started with our Asian Rysing staff and their drive to introduce the space to the specific tastes, sounds, fashions, and arts the community has to offer.

RYSE’s annual Be a Kid! fundraiser is made possible by our generous sponsors. This year, we are honoring our lead sponsors by sharing a little bit about how each organization collaborates with RYSE. We are grateful for the contributions made by our community to help us create a space to benefit our youth.

A mid-March conversation with RYSE’s Community Health Program Manager, Fahima Zaman, was filled with an electricity reflective of the dedicated, forward-thinking energy felt at our Health Justice Center. Threaded into RYSE’s core values, we took some time to discuss health for femme-identified youth, including cis, trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming youth in 2024. A generation is coming of age amidst an old struggle in a new landscape and Fahima noticed one pattern: members just want access to knowledge.

Dear Beloved Community,

As we reflect on this past year, we are reminded that we are all healing. 2023 was a year upon years of new experiences and relationships, of joyful music and creative leadership, of profound loss and grief within our community and world, and of navigating and working to reshape the systems we live among.

Young people's experience at RYSE, the relationships between members and with staff, and whether young people feel safe, loved, listened to, powerful and like they belong are the most important measures of whether RYSE is successful in meeting our Theory of Liberation goals. 

Every year, RYSE asks young people to share their feedback - this informs our programs and work in the year ahead. 

In May 2023, for the first time since we have been back in person in RYSE's new campus, 86 members shared their opinions.