Beloved Community, welcome to The RYSE!
RYSE exists because Black, Brown, Indigenous and Young People of Color called on adults to listen, invest, and rethink young people’s place in the city. These young leaders, most of whom would not directly benefit from their organizing, envisioned dynamic and cultural spaces in the community for healing, learning, connecting and power-building. Since 2002, this campus has always been the goal. Over a decade later, we are rooted in a space and place that already holds a powerful legacy of creativity, poetry, laughter, justice, organizing, grief, and gatherings. With RYSE Commons, young people in Richmond are rysing.
Rysing with love, rysing with rage, rysing toward liberation.
THEORY OF LIBERATION
OUR VISION
We envision strong, healthy, united communities where equity is the norm and violence is neither desired nor required, creating a strong foundation for future generations to thrive. A time and place where youth have opportunities to lead, to dream, and to love.
OUR VALUES
Safety: We create spaces where one feels connected, protected, safe, and loved.
Youth Power: We cultivate a community where young people guide each other on a path of self-love, self expression, belief-in-self, and resistance.
Love & Rage: We love deeply and demand healthy, thriving lives for ourselves and our communities. Our Rage is rooted in Love.
Shared Power & Relationships: We celebrate and unite different knowledge, experiences, and strengths among young people and adults.
Healing Centered: We respect and donor the wisdom of our lived experiences on journeys toward well-being.
Racial Equity & Justice: We commit to multiracial, multigender, multilabeled solidarity that names and centers the resilience, resistance, and leadership of people of color across all movements for justice.
Creativity & Play: We create brave spaces where joy is celebrated, confidence is nurtured, and imagination is liberated.
OUR BELIEFS
None of us are free until Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, Youth of Color are free.
Risk taking is essential to liberation.
Healing is our birthright.
Youth have the right to the freedom to have fun while growing emotionally, socially, artistically, and intellectually.
Power is built when everyone is seen, heard, valued, and has collective responsibility to our community.
Love & Rage are sacred and integral to our liberation.
Centering the lived experience of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, Youth of Color is central to our collective liberation.
OUR IMPACT
Young people feel loved, listened to, and powerful.
Built environments center the dreams, needs, power, and healing of our young people, our communities, and the land.
Systems are loving and just.
A Brief History of RYSE: 2002 - 2022
“- Youth Organizers engage 1500 youth residents in a community-wide needs assessment that lifts up the need for youth spaces in the community for healing, learning, connecting and power-building
”
“RYSE Opens
RYSE Election Night Party and celebrating the first Black President”
“1st Annual Pryde Month Celebration & Richmond’s Drag Battle
1st RYSE Leadership Institute for young organizers and leaders”
“1st Annual Be A Kid Fundraiser
1st Youth-led Mayoral Candidates Forum held at RYSE”
“RYSE wins SAMHSA’s National PSA contest with “We are the Ones” music video
Back to School Summer Jam”
“RYSE releases first mixtape
RYSE introduces Youth Justice department and programs
1st Annual Winter Wonderland
RYSE Outsyde officially opens”
“RYSE mobilizes to City Council in support for first resolution and proclamation of LGBTQQ Pride Month
RYSE conducts Listening Campaign with 500 young people to share experiences of violence, trauma, and healing
Release of music video for “Street Literature”
1st Annual Trauma and Healing Learning Series ”
“RYSE successfully advocates to end juvenile record sealing fees in Contra Costa County
RYSE merges with RAW Talent to form Performing Arts programming
Black Lives Matters Solidarity Action with Ferguson and release of music video for “Change Gon’ Come””
“RYSE multimedia youth-led production Bag Ladies’ Butterfly Blues
1st Annual “Truth Be Told” Youth Film Festival
RYSE wins East Bay Express Best of the Bay for Creative Youth Organizing
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch visits RYSE”
“RYSE Youth Justice and Education & Career departments merge to become Education and Justice department
1st Annual La Feria de Septiembre
RYSE multimedia youth-led production Fairytale
RYSE supports student-led walkouts after presidential election and inauguration
RYSE and allies successfully advocate for a County Racial Justice Task Force”
“RYSE announces and shares Theory of Liberation (ToL)
RYSE youth-led production Richmond Renaissance
RYSE coordinates Northern California Wildfire Relief donations and drop-offs
RYSE and allies successfully advocate for WCCUSD positive school climate resolution
West Contra Costa Public Education Fund names RYSE Collaborative Partner of the Year”
“Launch of RYSE Commons Capital Campaign and youth-led design
RYSE supports Day of Action at West County Detention Facility
RYSE buys and becomes owner of building and adjacent property
Richmond Kids First Coalition, led by RYSE wins Measures E and K
RYSE multimedia and immersive storytelling showcase Lead with Love
City of Richmond establishes October 18th as RYSE-ing Leaders Day in honor of 10th anniversary. ”
“RYSE multimedia showcase Youthtopia: In the Face of Gentrification
RYSE breaks ground on construction of RYSE Commons
RYSE collaborates with Impact Justice and Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office to pilot a county-wide restorative justice diversion program for youth - the 4th ever in the state of California.
RYSE awarded as one of Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper inaugural seed communities
RYSE youth organizers host ““This is How We RYSE: Remember, Reclaim, Resist, Reimagine,” a 7-week program of trainings, organizing workshops, and field trips
WCCUSD board passes the The Declaration of the Rights of All Students to Equity in Arts Learning Resolution with feedback from RYSE members
Contra Costa County Chair of the Board Award for exemplary public service ”
“RYSE joins Black Census and Redistricting Hub
RYSE hosts When Culture Speaks, a fashion and art show for Black Cultures Month
COVID-19 pandemic pivots RYSE to virtual workshops, cohorts and individualized supports; RYSE Youth COVID-19 Care Fund launched
1st convening of West Contra Costa County COVID-19 Collective Care Coalition
The Richmond Rapid Response Fund (R3F) created
1st Racial Reckoning Series held in solidarity with youth-led uprisings for racial justice
RYSE and allies support the formation of the CCC Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice. ”
“Sudden passing of beloved RYSE Clinical Director, Marissa Snoddy
RYSE host tours of RYSE Commons construction for youth members and community partners
1st Inaugural Richmond Youth Poet Laureate
As lead for WCCUSD Arts Now Communities, RYSE and partners co-designed a virtual professional development series in arts integration for WCCUSD teachers, co-facilitated by RYSE members
East Bay Innovation Awards Finalist
Contra Costa County Office of Education names RYSE as an Education Champion ”
“RYSE Commons construction complete.
RYSE members and staff form reopen work groups to continue to envision the space, including protocols and visuals.
Completion of the Love & Rage mural project.
RYSE awarded The Lewis Prize for Music Accelerator Award
RYSE announces and shares updated Theory of Liberation (TOL)
RYSE resumes in-person programs in September 2022, following 2 years of virtual programming.
Hidden Genius Project and Young Women’s Freedom Center move into RYSE Commons as first anchor partners. ”
