Rising Leaders

Rising Leaders is our dynamic rites-of-passage leadership experience for young Black men in the greater Portland, OR metro area. The paid six-week paid internship program is open to young Black men ages 16-21, supported by our partners at WorkSystems.

Rising Leaders has been hosted annually since the summer of 2017. The program currently consists of two cohorts; a first-year cohort focused on Community Building and a second-year cohort focused on Career Exploration. Rising Leaders is a one-of-a-kind program for young Black men focused on their cultural, identity, mental, and leadership development through leadership, storytelling, and experiences that expand their worldview. Youth leaders in Rising Leaders are known as Community Ambassadors and are recruited from schools across the metro area.

Rising Leaders Year 1: Community Building

Rising Leaders year one is a group-based one centered around community building through the development of leadership skills, Black history, and community safety. In the first year, ambassadors add to our digital archive, where they document their leadership experience through weekly journals, pictures, and videos they take and create, as well as the collection of historical artifacts (pictures, video, maps, etc) that connect to their own personal narratives. In addition to the ambassador cohort, Rising Leaders also features a cohort of local law enforcement officers who participate in a five-part story-sharing workshop series. Workshops are held once a week and allow ambassadors and officers to share personal experiences, discuss community safety, and have honest, raw dialogue. Other program highlights include a ropes course, police and firefighter trainings, historical Black Portland tour, Law Week, Black Women’s Luncheon, leadership camping trip, and our end-of-program community showcase.

Year 1 High Lights

Ropes course and camping trip with Northwest Outward Bound School

Community Showcase!

Rising Leaders Year 2: Career Exploration

In Year 2 of Rising Leaders, community ambassadors are placed in internships across the city. Each internship site is carefully selected based on the future career interests of the ambassador. Ambassadors spend six weeks at their internship site, utilizing and building on the skills they developed in Rising Leader’s Year 1. We work with each internship site to design an employment plan that gives the ambassador meaningful work during their time with the business so interns get a true sense of what it means to work in a professional business environment. In the summer of 2021, we were proud to have six different internship sites including Brown Hope, Hood to Coast Relay, Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, Simple X Mixer Series, Titan Freight, and the Portland Urban Leauge.

Rising Leaders Year 2 High Lights

Rising Leaders Year 3: Black Star Homecoming Expedition

July 2023