In Richmond, California, a youth-led movement is powerfully reshaping the future, creating opportunity and hope within a community that has had to navigate the impacts of violence and systemic disinvestment. The RYSE Center (RYSE), born from youth activism in response to tragedy and fueled by hope, pioneers an approach to youth development that offers profound lessons in partnership, equity and liberation for organizations nationwide.

Cultivated by youth

“My experience with violence is very brutal…I grew up with violence as if it were my sibling,” shared a participant in RYSE’s 2013 Listening Campaign, voicing the circumstances in their community that catalyzed the center’s creation.

In the early 2000s, Richmond faced a surge in youth homicides. Young people refused to accept this reality, mobilizing instead. They organized vigils and community forums, uniting more than 1,500 young people and community members to identify shared priorities and craft solutions. This powerful grassroots activism culminated in the opening of the RYSE Youth Center in October 2008.

“Young people organized to shift the conditions of violence, distress and dehumanization in which they suffer, survive, succeed, dream and die. They asked for adults to work together and to listen to the solutions that young people were already acting on,” said Kimberly Aceves-Iñiguez, RYSE executive director and co-founder.

Radical inquiry: Deepening partnership and understanding

Central to RYSE’s model is “radical inquiry” a methodology that fundamentally reimagines how organizations listen to, learn from and build authentic partnerships with young people. “Radical simply means grasping things at the root,” noted author and political activist Angela Davis said in her book, Women, Culture, & Politics.

For RYSE, Black, Indigenous and young people of color are the roots. Their lived experiences, inherent wisdom and vision guide every aspect of the center’s work.

Unlike traditional health and social service research models that may position communities primarily as subjects of study, radical inquiry centers ongoing, authentic relationships. It prioritizes connection, proximity and empathy — foundational elements for genuine partnership often absent in conventional evaluation.

“When we ask young people and adults close to them what they need and want more of, we continuously hear connection to each other, to our own and each other’s histories, struggles, dreams, and hopes, and to each other. For RYSE, radical inquiry is guided by three tenants: Connection that humanizes and itself can be healing. Proximity pushes us to stay responsive to young people’s immediate priorities and needs as they define them and to be adaptive when needs or conditions change. Empathy keeps us grounded and centered on young people’s experiences as they explore, define, and grapple with them,” said Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, RYSE associate director and co-founder.

Beyond ‘metrics of compliance’ towards liberation

Perhaps most transformative is RYSE’s shift away from what they term “metrics of compliance” — the conventional measures of individual and behavior change that are often the foci and standard of achievement of by funding, research and public systems. These measures also serve to diminish and deny the conditions of atmospheric distress that young people endure, while placing an unjust burden and responsibility on them to comply with these conditions that harm them, physically, emotionally, environmentally and politically.

RYSE observes that conventional metrics frequently frame youth “largely, and sometimes solely, as risk, problem or disease.” In response, RYSE actively works “to reimagine, uplift and uphold metrics of liberation—where resilience is the baseline, not the benchmark.”

This involves recognizing and valuing young people’s creativity, expression, cultural affirmation, and play not merely as supplemental activities, but as integral components of meaning-making, holistic health, safety, well-being and development.

“What matters to young people is what RYSE measures,” Dhaliwal said, fundamentally shifting accountability from youth to the systems and institutions intended to support them.

Creating a space of belonging: More than a program

The impact of this youth-centered, relationship-driven approach resonates deeply in the voices of the young people themselves.

“Being at RYSE made my peers and I feel at home,” shared a RYSE youth member in 2021. “The space always gave a welcoming feeling where youth can spend time and feel safe. Youth and staff created a family-like bond/relationship that I believe made great connections full of joy and trust in the space. Anyone who stepped into RYSE had a sense of belonging one way or another.”

“My name’s been pronounced wrong my whole life and I’ve just been going along with it. Until I walked into a building full of laughter, and eyes of YOU ARE SEEN. This place showed me more home than I’ve ever known,” said Adriana Avalos, Jordan Daniel, Sheila McKinney and Kylaa Prejean in a piece called Rooted & Rysing.

RYSE Commons: Building infrastructure for the future

This vision is now physically manifested in RYSE Commons, a 45,000-square-foot campus fully owned by the organization, with a deed guaranteeing the land will serve young people for the next century — a powerful act of permanence and community wealth-building.

The campus includes the Health Justice Center, a health care home designed with and for youth and young adults. It emerged directly from young people articulating their need for “safe, humanizing, connection-building spaces for imagining alternatives to the systems that limit and harm young people’s well-being and futures.”

Hundreds of young people actively shaped the Commons through ideation sessions, focus groups, design charrettes and leadership cohorts, ensuring the space embodies their vision and priorities.

From local roots to systems change

RYSE’s influence radiates outward, driving systemic change. The organization was instrumental in advocating for the Kids First Richmond Initiative, establishing dedicated city funding for expanded youth services and creating a Department of Children and Youth — shifting municipal priorities and resources.

Furthermore, RYSE has informed statewide policy, contributing their expertise to CA Prop 64 Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention and Treatment Fund. They championed substance use prevention strategies that are youth-driven, culturally relevant, and firmly rooted in racial and health equity.

As one RYSE youth member stated, “Realizing institutions don’t work for you, but against you is the first step of healing and saving your community.”

RYSE actively equips young people to not only heal but also to transform those institutions.

A blueprint for authentic partnership

Since opening, RYSE has partnered with more than 10,000 young people ages 13-26 in Richmond and West Contra Costa County. Its organizational structure mirrors its values: over 40% of staff began as RYSE members, 70% live or have lived locally, and more than 90% identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color.

For the broader nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, RYSE offers a compelling blueprint for shifting from service provision to authentic partnership. By centering young people as experts in their own lives and architects of solutions, RYSE demonstrates how organizations can co-create meaningful, lasting change grounded in community power and vision.

The center’s vision statement, crafted by young people, illuminates the path forward: “We envision communities where equity is the norm, where violence is neither desired nor required, creating a strong foundation for future generations to thrive.”