Equipping Today's at-risk youth to be ready for tomorrow

A note from our co-Founder:
After years as a case worker and working with at-risk youth in different ways, I realized that more had to be done; first, my family became a foster to adopt home. But my calling to help at-risk youth have the same opportunities as my own children continued. So, my husband and I created RISE UP, a group that supports at-risk kids (and teens in general) by filling in service gaps.

Consider the facts:
• 8,000 kids are in the system, but there are only 4,000 families accepting placement
• The number of children seeking placement has increased 56% since 2010
• Once children reach 8 years old, their chances of being adopted drop below 20%
• A child in foster care is two times less likely to do well in or complete high school
• Children in the system are two times more likely to end up in juvenile detention
• Almost 80% of incarcerated adults were once in the foster system
• As many as half of the adults who aged out of foster care are homeless within two years of emancipation

But it doesn’t have to be this way. At RISE UP, we work to help at-risk youth avoid becoming a statistic. Teens in foster care are only part of the group that RISE UP works with. And we teach them all to be Responsible, Independent, Strong, Empowered, Upstanding and Productive. We help them learn essential life and leadership skills such as communication, self-care, budgeting and planning and so much more. We surround them with love, encouragement and support. And ultimately, we’ll double? triple? quadruple? their chances of success in life!

-Sandy Pricer, President and co-founder of RISE UP cooperative