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Meet our partner, Da Vinci RISE High

7th November, 2024

Opened in 2016, RISE High has been designed to fit the unique needs of its student body: students who are navigating the foster care system, housing instability, the juvenile justice system, or have otherwise had their educational journeys disrupted.

Created through a series of roundtables with youth, families and community members who are impacted by these systems, every part of the school model has been designed with the needs of these promising young people at the centre!

The specific needs of each individual student are considered and supported by a range of on-site professionals including teachers, caseworkers, mental health practitioners and social workers.

“We need to be looking at people’s interests, lived experiences, identities and communities to curate and create learning that feels relevant and exciting and pushes them to be the most prepared they can be for their everyday life, and so that might look different by student,” says RISE High Co-Founder Erin Whalen.

Our partnership

Cotton On Foundation has proudly partnered with Da Vinci RISE High since 2022 – our first ongoing partnership with a school in the United States. In addition to the contribution of funds from our everyday fundraising model, local Cotton On team have joined with the school to run a localised version of Cotton On Foundation’s Retail Academy program.

Held across a series of face-to-face sessions, the program seeks to empower students by honing retail skills and exposing them to a broad array of career opportunities in the industry. As Retail Academy graduates, candidates will be able to enter the real world of retail with the skills and experience required to hold down an entry level role with confidence.

“I think retail is the perfect intersectionality of having to have technical skills and having to have people skills that is relevant for any position ever in life. So it’s been such an amazing conduit for deep levels of growth and development for our students where all of them have seen the value of what that looks like,” Whelan says.