Expanding Access

Fellowship and Convening

BellXcel established the Rise Initiative to address a critical need to expand access to high-quality out of school time (OST) programs for children, specifically in rural and Native/Indigenous communities. Tapping into BellXcel’s 30+ years of practices, strategies, and tools proven to drive strong outcomes through high-quality youth programming, the Rise Initiative empowers local youth leaders with professional development, one-to-one coaching, fellowship, and convening.

Why Rise?

In 2022, BellXcel engaged in a strategic planning exercise to identify populations which were not currently being reached by BellXcel and which were likely to be underserved by OST programs generally. The high need and program scarcity within rural and Indigenous/Native communities emerged as a top priority, with children in these communities experiencing significantly higher rates of poverty and falling behind their peers academically.

Building Capacity to Embed Evidence-based Practices

Build Provider Readiness
Invest in capacity-building of leaders to elevate the quality of youth programming

Engage Strong Leaders
Cultivate community cohort with diverse leaders to collaborate on insights and practices

Scale Knowledge
Gain new insights into how to support diverse communities and strengthen fellowship engagement

Advocate for Solutions
Amplify the needs of rural and Native/Indigenous communities and advocate for policies and investments

The Rise Fellowship Program

The Rise Fellowship Program is a two-year professional learning cohort designed to provide rural and Native/Indigenous youth-serving providers with coaching, tools and resources so they can introduce evidence-based practices into their OST programs and strengthen impacts for children and families.

MEET THE FELLOWS

The Rise Fellowship Summit

The inaugural Rise Summit took place in July 2024 at The University of Denver. The fellows gathered to collaborate, engage in action planning, and hear directly from experts in youth development, program administration, and evaluation.