Valentine’s Day can be hard. Because Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about Love. But this day seems only to celebrate the shiny, smiley, holding-hands-while-running-through-sunflowers type of Love. And for many of us, we are in a very different place. Many of us are in the love-as-tough-as-nails place. Where love looks busted up and scuffed…

We will not allow the fact that we can’t do everything keep us from doing something.   That’s the promise we made together – you, me, & Together Rising – on December 23, 2015 as we watched families flee a horrendous war in Syria only to drown in tiny, overflowing rubber rafts and freeze on…

Your monthly recurring giving to Together Rising helps to heal communities nationwide by offering support to help break cycles of poverty and violence. Through Together Rising, you recently invested $50,000 to fund Second Story‘s Teen Center in Culmore, Virginia –which supports 7th – 12th graders at risk of gang violence and recruitment.   Your funds are…

Every year nearly 500,000 children, impacted by abuse, neglect and trauma, spend time in the foster care system.    This holiday season, through Together Rising, you made 97 wishes come true for children in foster care. The wishes totaled $20,0000 and reached kids all over the US through One Simple Wish: Here are just 10 wishes…

Please meet Laura and her four daughters — Kendall, Taylor, Emmaline & Ava.   Two years ago this month, they lost their beloved husband and father, Chris, when he collapsed and died in their home. His daughters were the first by his side.   Laura was a stay-at-home mom, and even with Chris working, money…

Thousands of families, women, children and men, who have walked hundreds of miles fleeing in-country violence and persecution, are now at the southern border of the U.S. prepared to do the difficult work of presenting their petitions for legal asylum.   The shelters in Tijuana are overflowing, rain has caused much of the area to…

Hi All! Meet Audrey. Audrey’s neighbors call her “the mayor of Minneapolis” because she is constantly serving mamas and children. This is from her friend, Jessica:   “Each year, in between acting as a year-round clearing house for clothes and kids’ items, Audrey singlehandedly organizes a love-yourself-first Valentines’ day celebration, a school supplies drive, a…

As we celebrate with family and friends, let us take time to appreciate and share the truth.   While this holiday purports to mark friendship among Indigenous peoples and Pilgrims in 1621, the truth is that the first settlers and the U.S. government’s forced removals; theft of ancestral lands; biological warfare (intentionally distributing blankets contaminated…

Hi All. This is Desmond. He’s nine. He’s in treatment for Leukemia, and his doctors believe that one of the reasons he’s doing so well is because he’s so physically active. His mama, Melinda, wrote to us and told us that her baby’s dream is a particular mountain bike he’s seen in a fancy outdoor…

Even before Hurricane Florence struck last month, Together Rising was already hard at work making sure we knew the best boots-on-the-ground helpers who could step in immediately after the storm’s destruction.   Because of your generous monthly donations to Together Rising, we were able –in the direct aftermath of Florence’s devastation — to deploy $25,000…