Our Work

The mission of Rise is to incubate social movements by fostering movement mindset, empowering leaders and organizations, and connecting local communities. We believe that local, decentralized, civic, issue-focused campaigns are key drivers for change. 

The three pillars of Rise’s approach to fostering social movements are movement building training, movement support and network building. Since 2019, we have trained nearly 300 individuals, including activist leaders of civil society organizations and grassroots groups.

Our efforts have been instrumental in shaping movement mindset among civil society activists, increasing capacity of both individuals and movement organizations.

movement building training

Taking place in-person and virtually, our training curricula builds capacity for local communities and movement organizations. Our facilitators provide coaching and training to young leaders in new movement-building approaches. We create a leadership pipeline that measures movement leaders’ and organizers’ evolved ability to lead as a form of impact. Spanning months or customized for quick turnaround, our modules include:

  • Exposure training: introduction to movement building theories and strategies

  • Organizing, building, and sustaining movement participation

  • Transforming resistance activism into a more strategic, long-term campaigns

  • Building leadership and resilience within movements

  • Operationalizing movements

  • Mass and strategic communications for movement amplification

Incubation Program

Investing in people and initiatives to catalyze social change is Rise's top priority. We support movements by providing seed grants and coaching at all stages, from brainstorming to project implementation.

We organize in-person training and study tours for activists to meet and share best practices with like-minded movement actors in Southeast Asia.

Network building

By cultivating and strengthening networks, we prepare communities for collective actions. Rise connects individuals and communities through informal conversations and dialogues as well as public organized meetings.

Our keynote event, the Social Movement Festival, gathers hundreds of people to discuss tactics, co-learn, and collaborate. SMF is a platform for learning and connecting to strengthen social movement building efforts in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia.

The 2023 Social Movement Festival took place in Tokyo and online through a hybrid format, with the support from Open Culture Foundation, Team CommUnity and The Vietnamese Association in Japan.

In the context of a shrinking civic space, Rise held a roundtable discussion on “Sharing Innovative Leadership Approaches to Foster Grassroots Movements Across Southeast Asia.” From the discussions on leadership challenges and emerging organising models and tactics, the need for collaboration and resource sharing amongst movement actors emerged as the key theme. Our report captures insights from the event which will form the basis for follow-up activities in 2024 and beyond.