Keeping Teens Drugfree
Donation protected
Without support we will no longer be able to continue our life saving work......
Hey what's up everyone!? It's Anthony, Doug, and Nadine here with the rest of the Rise Together team and we just want to take a moment and thank everyone for supporting us over the past 3 years; especially the thousands of youth out there that has believed in our mission.
When we started, we honestly were just sick and tired of losing friends and family to the disease of addiction. Already by 2013, not only did Doug and I already lose 17 different friends to drugs but when we asked around, we weren’t the only ones that were suffering from a loss. Everyone we asked said they either knew somebody or they were the ones that have been directly impacted by addiction.
Unfortunately, nobody really seemed to be talking about it. Not at home, in the neighborhood, at church, at schools, or hardly anywhere and in our world SILENCE = DEATH.
That’s when we knew something had to be done. We had to start talking about it. So we did exactly that. We started to rally, we started to speak at treatment centers, jails, prisons, places like the Boys & Girls Club, and schools.
In the beginning we would speak pretty much anywhere and to anybody that would listen. It was when we started speaking in schools that we found our PURPOSE; which was to work with youth. We knew prevention was key and supporting youth is so important.
After traveling 100,000 miles and educating over 120,000 people in just over 2.5 years. Over the past 3 years we have never asked for donations or campaign dollars but at this point we have to. Like any business, we have costs to travel, operating costs, need for supplies, equipment expenses, and part time staffing needs to continue to support a project/campaign like this.
Here's what we have been up to with the support we have received...
Rise Together has been actively involved in the community since September 2013 by a group of best friends who are now recognized leading national recovery advocates.
As a grass roots organization we are rising to the challenge and committed to helping youth stand up and speak out on issues plaguing their generation; like drugs and alcohol. Prevention, education, and awareness is key. With continued support, we can help youth to stand up, speak out, and become the resilient leaders that our world so desperately needs.
And we definitely need it….
The U.S. Surgeon General just reported this November 17th that addiction is a bigger health problem than CANCER. 100’s of people are dying every day from drug overdose & drug related incidents. An estimated 21 million American’s are directly affected by drug or alcohol addiction. In fact, it has been reported that 1 in 7 people in the USA will face substance addiction; putting our next generation, our future leaders, our youth at risk.
As a father of two beautiful children (my son is pictured in the profile pic-on left), I can’t just stand there, doing nothing, while our country faces a social crisis. We must work together to prevent addiction & save the lives of our youth.
Again, in the last three years, Rise Together has traveled over 100,000 miles, partnered with over 150 schools, presented over 400 times, and has educated over 120,000 students. We primarily engage middle schools, high schools, colleges, and other public settings by providing a variety of speaking engagements, special events, corporate trainings, public-parent panels, and motivational workshops.
We also offer direct online support via social media & we even offer online resources via our website in the “FIND HELP” section. So once we are able to engage youth in one of our school-speaking programs or workshops, we are able to identify students that are asking for help for the very first time. They may be asking for help because they are being bullied, they have experienced some type of trauma, a high amount of stress, struggling with suicidal tendencies, or they are reaching out for help because they are or know somebody struggling with drugs and alcohol. We even see students asking for guidance because they are cutting & burning.
As an educator and resource provider, we offer peer-support to help get these youth the guidance that they need; whether that is within the school, at home, in the community, online, or other resource providers that we know.
For our core team, this is full-time job that we deeply care about and want to keep doing.
Unfortunately, school-districts are commonly on a VERY tight budget where they simply cannot afford to pay for prevention, AODA support, or the additional education that is needed to address mental health and addiction.
That's why we set up a GoFundMe campaign where we look to raise at least $150,000 to support our prevention, advocacy, education, and awareness efforts and programs. By doing so you are supporting our youth today that will help create a healthier tomorrow.
*WE JUST FEATURED IN THE HUFFINGTON POST*
This is a direct call to ACTION where everyone from the community, all across the country, can help out, unite, and change the perception & the conversation around addiction. Addiction is a disease and not moral failing. It does not discriminate. It impacts the entire family. 1 out of 3 households are afflicted by addiction. TOGETHER, we can do something about it!
This would mean the world to us! We have been working so hard, tirelessly, with countless hours, and often have faced many struggles to keep the strength, momentum, and even our faith going.
It has been heart-wrenching to watch over 75,000 students, mostly ages from ages 10-18, literally stand up in front of our team and shout that drugs and alcohol are a problem in their community and in their schools. It has been even more difficult to watch 1,000 upon 1,000’s of students take a stand and cry out that they have lost a loved one to a drug overdose; some as young as 8 years old* And this doesn’t even include the other social pressures we see young people struggling with.
Rise Together is making a measurable difference in the world. Since 2014, we surveyed nearly 7,000 students across 47 counties in our home state of Wisconsin, and we have found that an overwhelming amount of young people are affected by significant trauma, large amounts of stress, substance use disorders, self-harm, suicidal tendencies, and other mental and behavioral health conditions. Additionally, students have identified a need for more school prevention and intervention and education strategies to help combat the drug epidemic our country is facing.
Efforts like these are successfully helping to identify the pulse of our young people; especially teens. While we are educating through storytelling, we are also able to perform research throughout the communities we visit. This not only allows us to discover key findings of teen substance use but also discover viable solutions.
“An estimated 20.8 million people in our country are living with a substance use disorder. This is similar to the number of people who have diabetes, and 1.5 times the number of people who have all cancers combined. This number does not include the millions of people who are misusing substances but may not yet have a full-fledged disorder.” –US Surgeon General
As a recovery advocacy group we have a passion for prevention, education, and community outreach. Today, Rise Together is led by a team of dedicated professionals from a diverse background of educations, professions, and skill sets. We have some of the most talented speakers, educators, musicians, and leaders that truly care to make the biggest difference possible.
Your help would directly help us EDUCATE, ENGAGE, and EMPOWER 1,000’s of youth through our efforts which include things like…
1. One of the best school-speaking programs.
2. Public engagements & workshops
3. Student-led advocacy programs & pro-social activities that promote healthy living
4. Launch of student-led curriculm & the RAISE projecct.
Our school-speaking program is also not just ‘one and done’ as we are looking to launch a student-led and life skills curriculum, called The RAISE Project, in the spring of 2017. By offering a program like this, we can provide an annual student curriculum that addresses student culture & helps build resilient youth.
Your support today, will help us tour schools all across the country over the next year & beyond!
We currently use SAMSHA’s strategic prevention framework (SPF) and the 7 Strategies for Effective Community Change to help guide our efforts. As an organization, we know there isn’t a silver bullet or one strategy that will completely prevent teen drug use. What we do know though, is that if we as a community support curriculum or programs that help deter drug use and misuse, we can help our youth discover a brighter future.
Your support can help us to continue are strategies to change community norms around mental health and addiction; especially with youth between 10-18 years old. We will be able to provide more education & information to students. We will be able to help enhance their skills, provide them support, help eliminate barriers to treatment, and provide them incentives to live a drug free lifestyle. You will also help us to continue our research, surveys, and community assessment’s so we can better help serve our communities.
As leading voices in the recovery movement, we are in the trenches everyday watching our community suffer. Something has to drastically change. We MUST ALL act now.
Your support would not only help us both personally and professionally, but it could help save countless lives.
For every $ you donate to our GoFundMe campaign
"Keeping Teens Drug Free"
You could receive up to a 30% off or FREE merchandise from RISE TOGETHER!
You donate more than....
$50 you can receive 15% off.
$100 or more = 20% off
$250 or more = 30% off
$500 or more = 1 Free Merch Item
THIS IS FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY*
You will receive your promo code within 24hrs of your donation* Visit:
www.weallrisetogether/shop for winter gear!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS & Much love,
From Anthony, Doug, Nadine, and
the rest of the Rise Together team
Check us out at weallrisetogether.org
or
Visit us on Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram
Hey what's up everyone!? It's Anthony, Doug, and Nadine here with the rest of the Rise Together team and we just want to take a moment and thank everyone for supporting us over the past 3 years; especially the thousands of youth out there that has believed in our mission.
When we started, we honestly were just sick and tired of losing friends and family to the disease of addiction. Already by 2013, not only did Doug and I already lose 17 different friends to drugs but when we asked around, we weren’t the only ones that were suffering from a loss. Everyone we asked said they either knew somebody or they were the ones that have been directly impacted by addiction.
Unfortunately, nobody really seemed to be talking about it. Not at home, in the neighborhood, at church, at schools, or hardly anywhere and in our world SILENCE = DEATH.
That’s when we knew something had to be done. We had to start talking about it. So we did exactly that. We started to rally, we started to speak at treatment centers, jails, prisons, places like the Boys & Girls Club, and schools.
In the beginning we would speak pretty much anywhere and to anybody that would listen. It was when we started speaking in schools that we found our PURPOSE; which was to work with youth. We knew prevention was key and supporting youth is so important.
After traveling 100,000 miles and educating over 120,000 people in just over 2.5 years. Over the past 3 years we have never asked for donations or campaign dollars but at this point we have to. Like any business, we have costs to travel, operating costs, need for supplies, equipment expenses, and part time staffing needs to continue to support a project/campaign like this.
Here's what we have been up to with the support we have received...
Rise Together has been actively involved in the community since September 2013 by a group of best friends who are now recognized leading national recovery advocates.
As a grass roots organization we are rising to the challenge and committed to helping youth stand up and speak out on issues plaguing their generation; like drugs and alcohol. Prevention, education, and awareness is key. With continued support, we can help youth to stand up, speak out, and become the resilient leaders that our world so desperately needs.
And we definitely need it….
The U.S. Surgeon General just reported this November 17th that addiction is a bigger health problem than CANCER. 100’s of people are dying every day from drug overdose & drug related incidents. An estimated 21 million American’s are directly affected by drug or alcohol addiction. In fact, it has been reported that 1 in 7 people in the USA will face substance addiction; putting our next generation, our future leaders, our youth at risk.
As a father of two beautiful children (my son is pictured in the profile pic-on left), I can’t just stand there, doing nothing, while our country faces a social crisis. We must work together to prevent addiction & save the lives of our youth.
Again, in the last three years, Rise Together has traveled over 100,000 miles, partnered with over 150 schools, presented over 400 times, and has educated over 120,000 students. We primarily engage middle schools, high schools, colleges, and other public settings by providing a variety of speaking engagements, special events, corporate trainings, public-parent panels, and motivational workshops.
We also offer direct online support via social media & we even offer online resources via our website in the “FIND HELP” section. So once we are able to engage youth in one of our school-speaking programs or workshops, we are able to identify students that are asking for help for the very first time. They may be asking for help because they are being bullied, they have experienced some type of trauma, a high amount of stress, struggling with suicidal tendencies, or they are reaching out for help because they are or know somebody struggling with drugs and alcohol. We even see students asking for guidance because they are cutting & burning.
As an educator and resource provider, we offer peer-support to help get these youth the guidance that they need; whether that is within the school, at home, in the community, online, or other resource providers that we know.
For our core team, this is full-time job that we deeply care about and want to keep doing.
Unfortunately, school-districts are commonly on a VERY tight budget where they simply cannot afford to pay for prevention, AODA support, or the additional education that is needed to address mental health and addiction.
That's why we set up a GoFundMe campaign where we look to raise at least $150,000 to support our prevention, advocacy, education, and awareness efforts and programs. By doing so you are supporting our youth today that will help create a healthier tomorrow.
*WE JUST FEATURED IN THE HUFFINGTON POST*
This is a direct call to ACTION where everyone from the community, all across the country, can help out, unite, and change the perception & the conversation around addiction. Addiction is a disease and not moral failing. It does not discriminate. It impacts the entire family. 1 out of 3 households are afflicted by addiction. TOGETHER, we can do something about it!
This would mean the world to us! We have been working so hard, tirelessly, with countless hours, and often have faced many struggles to keep the strength, momentum, and even our faith going.
It has been heart-wrenching to watch over 75,000 students, mostly ages from ages 10-18, literally stand up in front of our team and shout that drugs and alcohol are a problem in their community and in their schools. It has been even more difficult to watch 1,000 upon 1,000’s of students take a stand and cry out that they have lost a loved one to a drug overdose; some as young as 8 years old* And this doesn’t even include the other social pressures we see young people struggling with.
Rise Together is making a measurable difference in the world. Since 2014, we surveyed nearly 7,000 students across 47 counties in our home state of Wisconsin, and we have found that an overwhelming amount of young people are affected by significant trauma, large amounts of stress, substance use disorders, self-harm, suicidal tendencies, and other mental and behavioral health conditions. Additionally, students have identified a need for more school prevention and intervention and education strategies to help combat the drug epidemic our country is facing.
Efforts like these are successfully helping to identify the pulse of our young people; especially teens. While we are educating through storytelling, we are also able to perform research throughout the communities we visit. This not only allows us to discover key findings of teen substance use but also discover viable solutions.
“An estimated 20.8 million people in our country are living with a substance use disorder. This is similar to the number of people who have diabetes, and 1.5 times the number of people who have all cancers combined. This number does not include the millions of people who are misusing substances but may not yet have a full-fledged disorder.” –US Surgeon General
As a recovery advocacy group we have a passion for prevention, education, and community outreach. Today, Rise Together is led by a team of dedicated professionals from a diverse background of educations, professions, and skill sets. We have some of the most talented speakers, educators, musicians, and leaders that truly care to make the biggest difference possible.
Your help would directly help us EDUCATE, ENGAGE, and EMPOWER 1,000’s of youth through our efforts which include things like…
1. One of the best school-speaking programs.
2. Public engagements & workshops
3. Student-led advocacy programs & pro-social activities that promote healthy living
4. Launch of student-led curriculm & the RAISE projecct.
Our school-speaking program is also not just ‘one and done’ as we are looking to launch a student-led and life skills curriculum, called The RAISE Project, in the spring of 2017. By offering a program like this, we can provide an annual student curriculum that addresses student culture & helps build resilient youth.
Your support today, will help us tour schools all across the country over the next year & beyond!
We currently use SAMSHA’s strategic prevention framework (SPF) and the 7 Strategies for Effective Community Change to help guide our efforts. As an organization, we know there isn’t a silver bullet or one strategy that will completely prevent teen drug use. What we do know though, is that if we as a community support curriculum or programs that help deter drug use and misuse, we can help our youth discover a brighter future.
Your support can help us to continue are strategies to change community norms around mental health and addiction; especially with youth between 10-18 years old. We will be able to provide more education & information to students. We will be able to help enhance their skills, provide them support, help eliminate barriers to treatment, and provide them incentives to live a drug free lifestyle. You will also help us to continue our research, surveys, and community assessment’s so we can better help serve our communities.
As leading voices in the recovery movement, we are in the trenches everyday watching our community suffer. Something has to drastically change. We MUST ALL act now.
Your support would not only help us both personally and professionally, but it could help save countless lives.
For every $ you donate to our GoFundMe campaign
"Keeping Teens Drug Free"
You could receive up to a 30% off or FREE merchandise from RISE TOGETHER!
You donate more than....
$50 you can receive 15% off.
$100 or more = 20% off
$250 or more = 30% off
$500 or more = 1 Free Merch Item
THIS IS FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY*
You will receive your promo code within 24hrs of your donation* Visit:
www.weallrisetogether/shop for winter gear!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS & Much love,
From Anthony, Doug, Nadine, and
the rest of the Rise Together team
Check us out at weallrisetogether.org
or
Visit us on Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram
Organizer
Anthony Alvarado
Organizer
Appleton, WI
