Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement

Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement, The Rising: Elevating Education, Expectations, and Self-Esteem—is an evidence-based national mentoring model. Seattle CARES provides The Rising at two Seattle middle schools: 1) Denny International Middle School, and 2) Meany Middle School. The Rising contributes to the TIRP infrastructure designed to change the socio-political status quo that normalizes the segregation, miseducation, psychological oppression, mass incarceration, and killing of Black people and thereby limits individual potential, jeopardizes life outcomes, destroys social unity, and compromises the promise of democracy for all.

CARES is a transformative mentoring movement, it is a long-term, community-led investment in the healing and empowerment of Black adults so that they can better heal and empower Black children. Such an investment of time and resources destabilizes implicitly the normalization of Black underachievement and deconstructs the idea of an immutable Black underclass. The Rising serves 40 scholars through a culturally competent, trauma-informed curriculum delivered by trained facilitators and mentors. CARES mentors equip our scholars with the primary social-emotional and academic supports needed to acquire the primary skills—belief in self, pride in community, critical thinking, good decision making, relationship building, and future orientation—to persist from middle school through high school graduation.

School Partners:

(Seattle Public School District)

• Denny International Middle School
• Meany Middle School