Rise-CWOP-Mt. Sinai Family Reunification Group - Staff of Rise, Child Welfare Organizing Project and Mt. Sinai Hospital worked together to adapt a proven program to support families with emotionally disturbed children so that it can be used effectively with families reunifying after foster care placement. Rise stories form the basis of a dozen parent-only sessions.

To develop diverse stories on critical topics, such as immigration, incarceration, preventive services, addiction, domestic violence and parent advocacy, we continue to work closely with the Child Welfare Organizing Project and have collaborated with the following organizations:

Rise reprints

We encourage organizations to use our stories in newsletters and policy reports. Rise stories have been reprinted in the American Bar Association's Child Law Practice, Michigan Law Review, NYC's Child Welfare Watch. Youth Today, Casey Family Services’ VOICES; Fostering Perspective, a newspaper for foster parents; Permanency Planning Today, a publication of the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning; Nurturing Times, a publication of Dads Helping Dads in Spokane, WA; and FOCUS, on therapeutic foster care. Click here to see selected reprints.

Rise impact

Read what parents, child welfare frontline workers and leadership, and advocates have to say about Rise.

Parent Writers: Our story development process teaches parents writing and critical thinking skills, helps writers organize traumatic experiences and connect with their strengths, provides peer-support, and reduces the shame and stigma of child welfare involvement.

Parent Readers: Rise stories provide parent readers with information about their rights and model the steps they can take strengthen their families. Through our print magazine and website, we reach 18,000 parents, child welfare practitioners and policymakers nationwide.

Child Welfare Practitioners: Rise stories build the empathy and ability of frontline child welfare staff to engage parents effectively. Family support programs, foster care agencies, drug treatment programs and legal services providers use our stories to train child welfare staff and foster parents and to educate and guide parents in support groups and parenting classes.

Child Welfare Policy: Rise stories inform policymakers about the impact of child welfare policies and practices on parents. We collaborate with advocacy organizations and researchers to add parent voice to policy reports, newsletters, conferences and campaigns to reform child welfare policies and practices.

Rise developed through the dedication of parents who believed that their stories could encourage other parents to reunify with their children and force child welfare workers to confront the biases that so often undermine good case practice and policymaking.

Rise began as a collaboration between the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP) and Youth Communication, publisher of Represent, a magazine by youth in foster care, where our stories were initially published as a Parents’ Perspectives column. In 2005, in order to inform and mobilize parents, we began publishing our tri-annual print magazine. Youth Communication became our fiscal sponsor in 2008.

Rise supporters

Rise supporters include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Programs, Center for the Study of Social Policy, Child Welfare Fund, Hedge Funds Care, the Hite Foundation, North Star Fund, NYC Children's Services, New Yorkers for Children, NYU Sunshine Fund, Steve and Lauren Pilgrim and Gary Pilgrim, and the Van Ameringen Foundation. Rise is fiscally sponsored by Youth Communication, publisher of Represent.

Rise leadership

Rise is led by an Advisory Board of parents and professionals; the magazine is overseen by an Editorial Board of dedicated parent writers. Rise has worked with more than 75 parents to produce stories, including a core staff of about a dozen writers.

Advisory Board

Mike Arsham, Child Welfare Organizing Project
Teresa Bachiller, Child Welfare Organizing Project
Melissa Baker, Casey Family Programs
Carmen Caban, Editorial Board
Tracey Carter, Rise Editorial Board
LynNeil Hancock, Columbia University School of Journalism
Keith Hefner, Youth Communication
Bevanjae Kelley, Rise Editorial Board
Lynne Miller, Rise Editorial Board
Jeanette Vega, Editorial Board
Robin Wiley, Editorial Board

Rise Staff

Director Nora McCarthy founded Rise in 2005. A graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Nora also edited Represent, by and for youth in foster care, and New Youth Connections, by and for New York City public high school students. She has reported for Newsday, City Limits and Child Welfare Watch.

Peer coaches

In 2010, Five Editorial Board members graduated from Rise’s first Editing 101 class, designed to prepare parent writers to work as peer writing coaches. The Editorial Board asked for the class. It turned out to be a wonderful experience, growing from 6 weeks to 18 weeks (so far). Participants learned core editing skills for developing personal narratives, such as structuring stories, building scenes, asking open-ended questions, and giving positive feedback. Graduates are helping to lead new writing groups for parents at the Child Welfare Organizing Project leadership curriculum.

Rise Contributing Writers:

Derrick Alexander Sarah Allen Louis Angel Prince Ariais Evaliz Andrades Maria Santos Angulo Jermaine Archer Ruby Awtry Teresa Bachiller Latonya Baskerville Patricia Bennett Eric Benson Bernadette Blount Carlos Boyet Carla Burks Queenie Butler Carmen Caban Linfa Carrion Dinah Clemmons-Gibson Emma Cohetero Guadalupe Cohetero Nancy Colon Lawanda Connelly David Conyers Jackie Crisp Clarence Davis Terreca DeFehr Jose Disla Sonia Diaz Shatema Dockery Deborah Echevarria Bliss Edwards Kevin Edwards Sandra Evans Ayinde Fair Damaris Figueroa Piazadora Footman Yadira Fragoso Alicia Gabriel Giovanni Garcia Daisy Gomez Erica Harrigan Diana Henriquez Adam Hom Toni Hoy Pamela Hughes

Anthony Isaacs Jacquelyn Israel Sabra Jackson Anna Jones Ebonie King Robin Larimore Tanya Long Caroline Marrero Maribel Martinez Evelyn Mateo Jacquelyn Matthews-Smallwood Deb McCabe Elizabeth Mendoza Herbert Morales Desiree Navarro Maya Noy Daisy Nunez Carmen Ortiz Denise Outlaw Rosita Pagan Jorge Pardave Margarita Pavon Ilka Perez Sylvia Perez Tere Perez Isabel R. Francisco Ramirez Chrystal Reddick Violet Rittenhour Juan Rodriguez Wanda Rodriguez Evelyn Salazar Milagros Sanchez Vanessa Sanchez Albert Shepherd Waldina Terreros Mary Thunker Philneia Timmons Karen Tucker Jeanette Vega Ella Veres Robin Wiley Na’im Williams Christina Wonsey Allison Young

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