12 Years of Helping Kids in Care

Today is Together We Rise’s 12th anniversary of helping kids in care!!! Yep! 12 years of helping change the way kids experience foster care. While our efforts started small, it is humbling seeing how many people from all across the nation have joined in our efforts.

Changing Hearts

Many people are not familiar with our origin story. In 2008, our founder Danny Mendoza learned that his cousin was living out of a car. Soon, this morphed into his cousin entering care and Danny finding nothing but roadblocks preventing him from helping. This inspired Danny to rally his friends together and start getting involved with helping foster youth on a local level.

Together We Rise began through the philosophy that together, we can accomplish anything. So the team of friends, volunteering time, dumpster diving to help raise funds began to grow. The first few years were powered by sheer will, volunteers, and interns.

Slowly, afterschool sports camps turned into bike builds, turned into cross country foster closets, turned into nationwide service projects, and more. Now, we host the largest scholarship fund for current and former foster youth in the nation.

What is Next

Together We Rise continues to grow because of people like you. People who see the value in helping children and caring about the community. The wonderful thing about Together We Rise is that the people who are committed to the cause understand that there are no limits. As long as there are children in care, there will be people working with Together We Rise to help them.

The last few months have been harsh for everyone. COVID has only brought to light that kids in care need more support than ever. We as a country can no longer avoid the needs of this community. What an honor to help foster youth every day. Hopefully, you can continue to join us on this mission.