RiseUp Red Wing Selected for a Wallace Foundation Grant.
RiseUp Red Wing and their partner organizations, has been chosen by The Wallace Foundation to participate in a one-time, one-year funding opportunity, called Advancing Opportunities for Adolescents. The effort, which involves 30 cross-sector, system-level partnerships, is intended to help strengthen the work of the partnerships in addressing the needs of adolescents who face barriers to participation in afterschool and summer programs and to build understanding about what partnerships like these are doing and how – insights that can help inform both the sector and potential future Wallace initiatives.
Following an open call for submissions last fall that prompted more than 1,700 expressions of interest, RiseUp Red Wing was one of 81 partnerships to submit proposals. The 30 partnerships selected reflect urban, suburban, and rural communities across a broad geographic range. Each partnership includes a number of individual entities working together, such as community-based organizations, school districts, out-of-school-time intermediaries, neighborhood development corporations, higher education institutions, businesses, healthcare providers, and city/county offices.
RiseUp Red Wing’s cross-sector partnership will use funding of $175,000 to advance youth voice in the community by creating a Community Youth Council. “We are excited to work with the Wallace Foundation to advance opportunities for youth to learn and lead in our community,” said Maggie Cichosz, Director of Community Impact for RiseUp Red Wing. “Our cross-sector partnership aims to collaborate with youth to create a community where every young person can thrive. This grant allows us to invest in strengthening our partner organizations’ relationship with youth by hearing their diverse perspectives, as well as learning how to share power with youth.
In addition to implementing these activities, RiseUp Red Wing will be asked to share with other grantees and researchers documents and other materials that describe the terms of the partnership, the work being done over the course of the year and observed results.
This effort builds on research that shows high-quality out-of-school-time programs can make important contributions to young people’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being, especially for youth who do not thrive in school. Studies have also shown that cross-sector partnerships, which include public and private organizations working in such areas as education, youth development and community health services, can help expand learning and enrichment opportunities for young people who most need them.
“We know from the research that high-quality afterschool and summer learning programs can help young people find purpose and passion as well as support academic success, but not enough opportunities are available, especially for youth who face barriers that may limit their ability to grow and thrive,” said Gigi Antoni, vice president, youth development at The Wallace Foundation. “We are looking forward to learning more with RiseUp Red Wing and the other partnerships about how they are making a difference and serving young people in their communities, and what factors assist or impede their efforts.”
