Meet Us

RiseUP is a nonprofit that supports teens and at-risk youth (13-23 yrs old) by teaching life and leadership skills and filling in service gaps.

By filling the service gaps and teaching life and leadership skills, RiseUp is working to make sure no child becomes a statistic. We believe that every teen can learn the needed skills and principals to become responsible, independent, strong, empowered, upstanding and productive adults with a positive mindset and self esteem.

Our volunteer team teaches and leads life skills and leadership workshops in strategic areas.  These volunteers bring passion and experience to help all teens and at-risk youth have the same opportunities as our own children, who inspired us to create RiseUP.  A teen’s future is vitally important and because of that, we provide them tools and principals to help them have a better tomorrow.

We also offer workshops for adults, these workshops bring useful topics to help with the teen(s) in their life. All adults are welcome, we have adults that work with teens, are raising teens, or just want to learn some of the valuable lessons provided. This is one way RiseUp aims to contribute to stopping the generational cycle of poverty, trauma and brokenness. 

With a background in social services, I realized that too many teens grow up without someone in their life to make them feel special, to give them a family, or to be there for them. As a caseworker, too many teen girls would say to me that they were going to get pregnant so that they had someone to love them. I watched too many teens ‘age-out’ of the system without a support system. I witnessed child after child fall through the cracks and not have the tools needed to survive on their own, regardless of how hard I tried to help.

So, after years of saying we were going to adopt one day, our family became a foster to adopt home.  We adopted a sibling set of three from foster care, but that wasn’t enough; we knew we could still do more, our calling to help all teens have the same opportunities as our own kids, continued. 

So, we created RiseUP Cooperative, a non-profit charitable organization, that supports teens and at-risk youth, by filling in service gaps. We equip today’s teens to have better tomorrows with life and leadership workshops. 

We know we cannot parent more children.

We know that we cannot help every teen.

We know that we need help with this mission. 

We know that if we can help start a ripple effect, it can change generations of families.

We know that we can help those we do touch, succeed.

We know we can provide tools to create a better tomorrow for all. 

We know teens will RiseUP for a better tomorrow! Being Responsible Independent Strong Empowered Upstanding Productive in society!

-Joe and Sandy Pricer | Founders RiseUP Cooperative