Archived Projects

The Afghan Youth Support program was developed in 2021 with support from a grant from the PA Department of Education to provide tailored support for Afghan refugee youth in grades 9-12 who recently resettled in Allegheny County. Through individualized support and monthly day-long workshops, youth build community, gain academic and emotional support, and become aware of post-secondary opportunities in the Pittsburgh region. 

As was identified from the start of this program, it came to an end after 3 years in 2024.

Afghan Youth Zine

This book was created and designed by students of the Afghan Youth Support program throughout the 22-23 school year. This book sought to showcase the diversity of Afghan culture through student art, design, and stories.

Research shows that LGBTQ+ immigrant and refugee youth face particular hardships associated with their intersecting sexual, gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural identities. The goal of the ARYSE LGBTQ+ Initiative is to help all of the organization’s stakeholders, especially youth participants and staff, become more expansive in their understanding and acceptance of gender and sexuality. This is achieved through a combination of trainings, research, collaborations, and the Queer Youth Space. 

In an effort to respond to a growing number of youth attending ARYSE programs who identify as queer, trans, and/or nonbinary, ARYSE launched the Queer Youth Space in the summer of 2021. The goal of the program is to create and maintain a safe space for queer refugee and immigrant youth in the Pittsburgh region to find community and thrive.

Throughout YEARS, our Future Planning Workshops provided individualized support to high school seniors as they prepared for life after graduation. Youth participants were matched with a mentor who helped them create a checklist of tasks between the fall and spring to ensure the students were on track toward their post-secondary goals. The goal of the program was that all ARYSE seniors feel confident in the graduation process and were on track to achieve their college and career goals.

In 2021, ARYSE joined the Community Vitality Collaborative, a coalition developed to address vaccine hesitancy in Allegheny County. During this time, Sophie Burkholder, our Communications and Operations Manager, regularly attended and participated in 2 working groups, one focused on immigrant and refugee communities, the other focused on youth outreach. Through her relationships and knowledge, Sophie led an initiative to host 3 vaccine clinics in partnership with UPMC for families in Crafton Heights. Over the course of 3 clinics, over 200 vaccine doses were administered to community members. These vaccine clinics helped over 100 individuals connected to ARYSE get vaccinated, including 30 PRYSE Academy 2022 participants.

Lifting Up Immigrant and Refugee Voices, A collaboration between ARYSE and Casa San Jose

In 2020, ARYSE partnered with Casa San Jose to host 3 film screenings in a collection of documentaries from New Immigrant and Refugee Visions which was created for the purpose of engaging Americans in dialogue about immigrant experiences and the issues they face. 

Throughout these 3 screenings, 10 documentaries were shown and each screening included a panel discussion with members of the Pittsburgh immigrant and refugee community led by an ARYSE Youth Steering Committee member. 

In the spring of 2023, ARYSE and Open Field partnered with Anna Brewer Documentaries and Yusef from Liberate X to host a youth video apprenticeship program. Janvier, Salivaire, and Aristo worked with Anna Brewer, Jack Orhman, and Yusef to develop core competencies in video production: storyboarding, script development, audio/video recording, and conducting interviews. During the summer, with the guidance of Jack Ohrman and Yusuph Ulomi, the apprentices took photos and videos at PRYSE Academy and Open Field soccer sessions. In the fall and spring, they learned entrepreneurship and editing skills and completed the final version of the video in 2024. Thanks to support from the Heinz Endowments, the youth were paid hourly for all of the time spent on the project.