A Community Thrives

Hello, friends of RISE! We encourage you to help us build a “Healthy for Life” culture in our little corner of the world by contributing through RISE’s A Community Thrives crowd-funding page. Our goal is to raise $5,000 with this campaign to support our growing work to privide and promote responsible, inclusive sexuality education as well as create a more compassionate, trauma-informed culture.

How are we doing that, you ask? Let us count the ways!

Sexuality, DEI, and Trauma-informed Care Education

RISE’s trained facilitators provide an array of programming, including custom programs, for local populations and organizations as well as folx across the country.

Diaphragm, internal and external condoms, arm implant, cervical ring, IUD, and a variety of birth-control and emergency contracetpion pills. RISE teaches about all of these and actively distributes internal and external condoms as well as dental dams (not shown, but a barrier method of protection for mouth-to-anus and mouth-to-vagina sex). Fun fact: dental dams are super soft.

Full Our Whole Lives comprehensive sex ed classes for people ages Kindergarten through older adult
Topic-based classes such as:
- How to be an Askable Adult
- Gender Diversity
- Let’s Talk About Sex
- Healthy/Unhealthy Relationships
- How do we do diversity and inclusion?
- Trauma-informed Approaches
- Trauma-informed Approaches for Faith Communities
Online programming for
- Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health
- Colorado State University
- Day Reporting Center
- Sexy Sex Ed
- TN Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence
- YW CARES

Collective Impact

RISE is the backbone organization of Collective Impact for Emotional and Sexual Health (CIESH), which centers the emotional and sexual health of all people by:

Increasing access to knowledge and constituent-focused resources.
Promoting trauma-informed approaches.
Actively opposing stigma and bias to reduce shame and fear

Current CIESH working groups include

Trauma-informed sexuality education
Person-centered SA/DV response services
Patient-centered Ob/Gyn practices
Governance and Onboarding

We hope to be able to begin a culturally competent office practices working group soon.

RISE also participates in STRONG ACC, Ballad Health’s Accountable Care Community collective impact initiative that seeks to develop health, resilience, and opportunity for the next generation. RISE serves on the ACEs, Trauma and Resilience Working Group.

Other partnerships

Inclusivity Committee of the TN Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, which, in its first year developed multi-language brochures with several member organizations, including RISE, and currently is working on fair housing training for landlords to benefit survivors of domestic violence.

Safe Bar program with Branch House, Family Justice Center, and YW CARES, which provides ongoing bystander intervention training for local bar staff and marketing incentives for owners/manager to participate.

Educational programming with A Step Ahead Tri-Cities, which removes barriers to long-acting, reversible contraception in upper east Tennessee. RISE and A Step Ahead both provide fact-based, responsible, inclusive sexuality education, and we work together to meet programming needs in our area.

Peer Sexuality Educators

This peer-led program for rising 9-12 grade students equally emphasizes:

Education
Advocacy
Service

2020-21 was the inaugural year for this program, and despite the limitations necessary due to COVID the PSEs hosted an LGBTQ+ panel about how to be an ally, advocated with state legislators via telephone and Zoom, and started an inclusive book club at the Elizabethton Public Library and an online Gender and Sexuality Alliance which allows homeschoolers and teens whose schools don’t have a GSA to be involved in an inclusive community.

Facilitator Training

RISE organizes Our Whole Lives sexuality education facilitator training for teaching all ages from kindergarten through older adult. People come from across the United States for these trainings. In addition, we are developing two unique sex ed facilitator trainings:

Accessible Sexuality Education--how to be a more effective facilitator for autistic folx and people with intellectual and developmental differences and how to explain the need to their support people.
Trauma-informed Sexuality Education--how to intentionally bring trauma-informed approaches into the sex ed classroom at any age.

RISE also provides Trauma-informed Care facilitator training and is a member of the Sex Ed Collaborative, which envisions and works toward a world in which all young people receive high-quality, comprehensive sexuality education. The SEC is made up of sex education experts who share the common goal to nurture K-12 school-based sexuality education programs across the United States.

STI and Pregnancy Prevention

With generous support in the form of internal and external condoms, dental dams, and lube from Planned Parenthood Knoxville, RISE distributes barrier prevention at its own tabling and education events and provides regular distribution to:

Day Reporting Center, Johnson City
Hunger First, Kingsport
Projexx, Johnson City
Robertson Pride Center, ETSU, Johnson City
Seasons of Hope, Johnson City
Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, ETSU, Johnson City
Women’s Resource Center, ETSU, Johnson City

Staff

RISE has done all this with only one part-time staff member (who works more than she is paid to) and a cohort of dedicated volunteers. Happily, our opportunities continue to blossom. We hope to add another paid staff member to our roster so we can keep saying an enthusiastic “yes!”

Finally

A Community Thrives is a program of the Gannett Foundation. If we raise at least $3,000 we will be eligible for consideration for a number of further grants. This program is open through noon on August 13. Donations of any size are wonderful, and please be as generous as you can. And thank you!

Donate Now!

Kittens, because we want you to feel as good after your donation as we do!