Can I be honest and transparent? Who has ever been a teenager? These questions are so simple yet they are the reality of the work we do at Rise Up For Youth. My name is Lynn Gilkey and I am the co-founder of Rise Up For Youth. My husband and I founded the organization because we knew firsthand the consequences of negative choices and how they can truly change the rest of your life.
We believe in the importance of providing every youth a champion so that’s why it’s our mission to serve area high school students in the Wichita Public Schools with caring, adult mentors who can help guide our youth down the right path. I certainly know what it’s like growing up without a champion. My mother died when I was only three years old. My father was left to take care of eight kids by himself. When I was four years old, I was sent to live with extended family members I barely knew. In that house, I was physically, verbally, and sexually abused.
By the time I became an adult I had developed an addiction to crack cocaine that lasted sixteen years of my life. I have freed my life from drugs for 18 years! Here I am now. Honest. Transparent. A Survivor. I always look back and wonder why all those drugs? Why getting high? The answer is clear to me now. I had no positive, adult role models who could tell me “Lynn you are going down the wrong path. You are making the wrong choices. You need to think about what you are doing.” I truly thought nobody cared and I surely didn’t know I could survive it all. I work to empower our youth to understand that painful stuff happens and it happens to all of us.
Your pain does not need to be your secret. This is your life. What are you going to do with it?
How Rise Up For Youth helps:
Our two signature programs, Brotherhood and Sisterhood, serve students in five Wichita Public High Schools: East, Southeast, West, North, and Northwest. Our programs currently reach over 300 teenage youth. We meet our students weekly in the schools to discuss important issues and provide mentoring to ensure emotional support and academic growth through group and one-on-one mentoring. We also host a variety of empowerment workshops throughout the year to give our youth the tools needed to be successful in life. These workshops cover important life lessons such as job prep (resume writing, applying, and mock interviews), ACT preparation, healthy relationships, and countless others. We also believe it’s important to provide exposure opportunities to our students. We take them to area colleges to learn about post-secondary options and future careers so our students can become empowered to make strong life choices.
We also have fun with our students and take many outings such as boxing, yoga, and painting to name a few. We believe that by having fun with, and forming strong bonds among our youth that we can learn to build each other up and build a support net with our fellow brothers and sisters.
Will you rise up to support our youth?
How to support Rise Up For Youth
- Attend our next fundraiser and celebrate the young ladies of our Sisterhood Program
- Become informed and be an advocate for our youth. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
- Watch our latest video to learn more about our programs and impact.
- Donate or volunteer to help further our mission.
