Changing the landscape of Leadership.
Our VISION is thriving, resident-led urban neighborhoods that provide safe and healthy opportunities for youth and families to live, work, and play.
Our MISSION is to elevate and advance urban leadership through dialogue-based civic engagement, dynamic nonprofit partnerships, and direct training and support to increase the capacity of urban residents to effect meaningful community change.
Our VALUES are:
Community
Collaboration
Shared Responsibility
Humanity
Reciprocity
Consciousness
Collective Impact
OUR IMPACT
We grow leaders where they already live.
In San Diego's neighborhoods, those most affected by challenges are often best positioned to develop effective solutions. RISE collaborates with residents, young people, artists, and the grassroots organizations they establish, supporting the development and sustainability of local leadership. Investing in a single leader often generates broader impact, as positive change spreads through their networks, communities, and organizations, ultimately building healthier, more connected neighborhoods resourced to shape their own futures.
At RISE, nothing rises in isolation. We integrate research-backed leadership theory, the lived wisdom of culture and community, and human-centered design, recognizing that enduring change is not achieved by a single idea or individual. When knowledge, culture, and community are aligned, they elevate all within their reach: individuals discovering their voice, organizations establishing stability, and neighborhoods asserting their power. This approach addresses the root causes of challenges and brings decision-making and opportunity closer to those who have historically been excluded.
Instead of imposing temporary solutions, the change we support endures long after we have stepped back. It is sustained by fellows, youth leaders, artists, and partner organizations who now participate in decision-making processes that shape how San Diego's neighborhoods evolve, recover, and prosper.
LEAD
Grow as a leader. We cultivate the leadership already present in a neighborhood, helping people gain the insight, tools, and community to lead through complexity — and to lift others as they rise.
STRENGTHEN
Steady your organization. We build the capacity of the organizations and ventures communities rely on, so they can grow, sustain themselves, and serve for the long term.
GATHER
Shape what comes next. We open the spaces where residents and leaders meet, turning honest dialogue into shared direction and collective action for the places they call home.
CREATE
Move culture forward. We support creativity and culture as a force for change — carrying the stories, identity, and imagination that lasting transformation depends on.
Civic Engagement
Fostering critical and authentic dialogue and resident-led action around issues impacting urban communities throughout San Diego County.
Leveraging adaptive leadership frameworks, group relations theory, and cultural competency to empower leaders to tackle seemingly complex challenges within and alongside their communities.
Leadership Development
Training & Partnerships
Strengthening nonprofits, social enterprises, minority-led small businesses, and regional organizations through DEIA consultation, technical assistance, capacity-building training, and strategic partnerships.
Nurturing, advocating, and amplifying the intersection of arts and social justice in San Diego to support artists and emerging organizations with roots in communities of color.
RISE Arts
Philanthropic & Corporate Partners
“RISE helped me to be transparent in my process. It was really coming in and doing the real work that I believe that we as leaders have to do if we are going to succeed and lead others”
— Monica Montgomery Steppe, San Diego County Supervisor District Four (RISE Fellow ‘17)
Let’s meet up in real life to support a more inclusive San Diego community.
Sign up to remain up-to-date about our events, programs, and initiatives.