Paul Richmond, the cofounder of You Will Rise Project, approached Columbus College of Art and Design in 2014 with the hopes of developing a mentoring program in conjunction with a college art class. Michele Hill, Psychology Professor and licensed therapist, incorporated YWR into her Community Based Learning course. Students would learn outside the classroom with hands on experience. The next year, senior Madeline Miller came forward to adopt the program as her Senior Honors Thesis; hoping to expand the program to other high schools thus giving opportunity for more voices to be heard and more stories shared. It concluded with 12 schools participating and 24 high students involved in the workshops along with 15 mentors. 

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Today, a team of creatives, educators, and dreamers, are looking to build new programs founded on the morals, openness, and hope Paul presented to CCAD years ago. With the support from You Will Rise, Art Your Way launched a successful set of workshops int the Fall of 2018. 

 

We are excited to continue to expand our network in Columbus while bringing awareness to the painfully honest truth that bullying is still a widespread problem impacting those of all ages and backgrounds.