While our business remained closed during S.I.P. Supple relied on our loyal clients + online orders for survival. Every time we received an online order, we included a hand-sewn cloth mask as a thank you.

You may have gotten one. We hope you love it + wear it well! Many of you asked if we were selling our masks, but we were actually busy sewing for hospitals + nursing homes.

Now we are sewing for RYSE. By giving our time, our love + energy to the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, we will be “sewing” seeds of hope.

You can’t miss the marigold colored building at the intersection of Macdonald + 41st. Covered with artistic, bright murals , you know that you’ve arrived at RYSE.

Nationally recognized for their youth led programs + advocacy, RYSE has been a consistent sanctuary of safety, compassion + justice for all youth for the past 10 years.

RYSE programs are designed to provide youth with tools to build a better city + world. RYSE offers programs in Youth Organizing , Community Health, Media, Arts + Culture , Education + Justice.

Programming at RYSE is anchored in the belief that young people have the lived knowledge + expertise to identify, prioritize + direct the activities + services necessary to thrive.

Their work creates safe places, grounded in social justice for young people to learn, love, educate, heal + transform lives + communities. 4,000 members are served, 25% identify as LGBTQ, 95% are young people of color.

We are living in a time of pandemic, uprising + upheaval which has amplified the uncertainty in the lives of the young people RYSE serves. Many young people in Richmond navigate their daily lives with an unfair level of unpredictability, disrupting their need for connection + community.

RYSE continues to provide essential community + connection during this moment in time when the Covid-19 pandemic has collided with the protest movement that has emerged in the wake of the unlawful deaths of so many black lives. The veil that has long-shrouded issues of inequality, systemic racism + social justice has been lifted. RYSE staff says it best:

We know that in times of crisis + pandemic, our communities face increased burden of economic hardship, compounded distress + too often, stigma + blame. Pandemics reveal + increase inequity. Pandemics also reveal + insist upon beloved community. Let’s build our sacred connections in times of social distancing. Let’s be beloved.

SUPPLE + RYSE : OUR MASK PROJECT

Our 100% cotton, masks are for sale in our online shop + will be sold in our newly re-opened shop on Solano Avenue. 100% of each mask sale will be donated to RYSE. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for RYSE.

We invite you to join us in supporting this impressive local resource for all youth. Buy some masks at Supple or donate directly to RYSE.

Please visit the RYSE website to learn more about who they are + what they do: www.rysecenter.org

RYSE stands in love + solidarity with Black young people + young people of color across the Bay as they stand in their power to speak out against white supremacy + state sanctioned violence. We stand in love + solidarity with young people who are taking to the streets or organizing virtually. We stand in love + solidarity with young people however they are holding, coping struggling + sustaining.

The young people of RYSE have called upon us to become Adult Allies in the community, to work with them to change the adult systems that have let them down. Maya Angelou taught us all that “When you know better, you can do better”. It is beyond time for us all to do better.

Soon, their new building RYSE Commons will open so these young people can continue to dream, build + flourish in the loving , just systems they deserve.