Non-profit

Youth Rise Texas

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Youth Rise Texas is an Austin, Texas-based minority youth-focused advocacy organization founded in 2015. 12 The organization opposes immigration deportation and America’s high rate of incarceration.

It was officially registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2018. 34 Youth Rise offers internships to children whose parents have been deported or incarcerated and supports their artistic endeavors. The group also publicly advocates against deportation and incarceration. 56

Funding

It received $15,000 in 2017 from the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People. The grant was for Youth Rise Texas’s activist engagement efforts. 7

Youth Rise Texas organizes an annual “Arts Forward” fundraiser which showcases artistic and cultural talents of its members. 8 Youth Rise credited the 2019 fundraiser to being “made possible with generous support from the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division.” Its 2019 fundraiser was done in partnership with two other non-profit organizations. 9

Youth Rise Texas hosted a back-to-school fundraiser in 2018 which aimed to raise $30,000. 10

Youth Rise Texas was one of the last six organizations to be considered for a $100,000 grant from Impact Austin in the Community Grants category in spring 2019. 11 It did not receive the grant. 12

Treasury City Thrift, an activist-oriented thrift store in Austin, donated the results of some of its profits to Youth Rise Texas. 13 The female activist-oriented Mary’s Pence organization also provided funding for two interns out of six in Youth Rise Texas’ first intern program. 14

The Pollination Project has funded Youth Rise Texas’ work. 15

Initiatives

Youth Rise Texas has several programs through which it accomplishes its missions. It runs the #StayWoke summer program and two school-year programs, Mentored Youth Fellowship Program and Youth Organizing Institute, for youth whose parents have been deported or incarcerated. 1617

Youth Rise Texas executive director Kandace Vallejo told Fox 7 Austin in 2018 that Youth Rise Texas had worked with “about 30 young people a year” from 2015 to 2018. During the interview, Fox 7 highlighted some of Youth Rise Texas’ initiatives, including providing eight part-time jobs, creating a monologue series about incarceration and deportation of parents, and protesting against conditions in jails and detention centers. The group also campaign against Austin police working with Immigration & Customs Enforcement. 18

A 2017 video initiative to highlight the stories of children of deportees was done in partnership with the group Creative Action’s Youth Cinema Collective initiative. 19

Youth Rise Texas signed a letter with 37 other left-leaning organizations urging colleges and universities to blacklist Trump administration officials who were involved in the administration’s child separation policy. 20

Youth Rise Texas has been cited in a number of media outlets on immigration and incarceration issues. A 2018 National Public Radio profile of a non-profit which houses and teaches unaccompanied and separated immigrant children quoted Vallejo saying that she wasn’t sure if the sheltering of immigrant children was care of children or complicity in U.S. immigration policies, especially under the Trump administration’s short-lived policy of separating children from parents and others with whom they are traveling. 21 Texas Tribune quoted a spokesperson for Youth Rise Texas on the impact of incarceration on youth in a story about women in prison. 22

Leadership

Kandace Vallejo is Youth Rise Texas’s executive director. She was a Soros Justice Fellow in 2017 for the Open Society Foundations and previously worked in expansionist immigration activism as well as liberal get-out-the-vote efforts. 23

Kymberlie Quong-Charles is Youth Rise Texas’s deputy director. Her graduate work at the University of Texas School of Social Work focused on Women and Gender Studies, and included an internship at the LGBT counseling group Out Youth. She worked at the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities. 24

References

  1. Charity Navigator, Youth Rise Texas, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=830663313
  2. Tania Ortega, “Youth Rise Texas uplifts the voices of young people,” May 13, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2019.http://www.fox7austin.com/good-day/youth-rise-texas-uplifts-the-voices-of-young-people
  3. Charity Navigator, Youth Rise Texas, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=830663313
  4. Tania Ortega, “Youth Rise Texas uplifts the voices of young people,” May 13, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2019. http://www.fox7austin.com/good-day/youth-rise-texas-uplifts-the-voices-of-young-people
  5. Youth Rise Texas, What We Do, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/what-we-do-3/
  6. Youth Rise Texas, Why We Do It, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/why-we-do-it-2/
  7. Presbyterian News Service, “SDOP disburses nearly $90,000 for self-help projects,” August 3, 2017. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://pres-outlook.org/2017/08/sdop-disburses-nearly-90000-self-help-projects/
  8. Kymberlie Quong-Charles, “#ArtsForward tickets are on sale now,” March 8, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/artsforward-tickets-are-on-sale-now/
  9. Better Unite, “#ArtsForward Annual Showcase,” April 28, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.betterunite.com/youthrisetexas-artsforwardannualshowcase
  10. Kymberlie Quong-Charles, “Get on the van! Youth Rise Texas’ Back-to-School campaign,” September 30, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/get-on-the-van-youth-rise-texas-back-to-school-campaign/
  11. Impact Austin, “18 non-profits invited to submit Impact Austin program grant proposals,” February 1, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.impactaustin.org/blog/post/18-nonprofits-invited-to-submit-impact-austin-program-grant-proposals
  12. Impact Austin, “Impact Austin selects finalists for 2019 grants,” May 5, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.impactaustin.org/news-events/post/impact-austin-selects-finalists-for-2019-grants
  13. Better Unite, “Treasure City Thrift shopping night,” March 7, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.betterunite.com/youthrisetexas-treasurecitythriftshoppingnight
  14. Mary’s Pence, “Youth voices: Creating a space for altruism – Youth Rise Texas,” Accessed June 19, 2019.https://www.maryspence.org/stories/youth-voices-creating-a-space-for-altruism-youth-rise-texas/
  15. The Pollination Project, “Kandace Vallejo, Youth Rise Texas,” Accessed June 19, 2019. https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/kandace-vallejo-youth-rise-texas/
  16. Youth Rise Texas, What We Do, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/what-we-do-3/
  17. Better Unite, Support Youth Rise, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.betterunite.com/youthrisetexas-supportyouthrise-1
  18. Tania Ortega, “Youth Rise Texas uplifts the voices of young people,” May 13, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2019. http://www.fox7austin.com/good-day/youth-rise-texas-uplifts-the-voices-of-young-people
  19. Nadia Hamdan, “’An Empathy Machine’: Teens use film to express feelings about parents’ deportations,” July 28, 2017. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.kut.org/post/empathy-machine-teens-use-film-express-feelings-about-parents-deportations
  20. Tyler O’Neil, “Coalition of left-wing groups demands universities blacklist former Trump officials,” May 2, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://pjmedia.com/trending/38-leftist-groups-urge-colleges-universities-to-blacklist-trump-admin-officials/
  21. Camila Domonoske, “A Latino nonprofit is holding separated kids. Is that care or complicity or both?” June 22, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2018/06/22/622186779/a-latino-nonprofit-is-holding-separated-kids-is-that-care-or-complicity-or-both
  22. Catherine Marfin, “As number of imprisoned Texas women grows, lawmakers hope to add ‘dignity’ to their time behind bars,” March 18, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/18/imprisoned-texas-women-face-numerous-challenges/
  23. Open Society Foundation, “Foundations announce 2017 Soros Justice Fellows,” July 25, 2017. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/foundations-announce-2017-soros-justice-fellows
  24. Youth Rise Texas, Who We Are, Accessed June 19, 2019. https://www.youthrisetx.org/who-we-are/
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