Together with Families officially launched KinRise on Thursday with a ribbon cutting celebration at its community Hub in Cobb County (2790 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 101).
At the ribbon cutting, the teens who helped design KinRise cut the ribbon themselves, reinforcing one of the program’s core beliefs: young people should not just be invited into programs, they should help shape and lead them.
KinRise is a new youth leadership and wellness program for high school students across Cobb County living with grandparents, relatives, siblings, and family friends — many of whom are quietly carrying grief, instability, poverty, stress, caregiving responsibilities, and overwhelming pressure while trying to navigate adolescence.
KinRise is built around a simple belief: no teen should navigate life alone. The program helps teens belong, grow, lead, and rise through consistent relationships, wellness support, academic help, leadership opportunities, and trusted mentors who show up consistently.
The launch comes during Mental Health Awareness Month amid growing concern about youth isolation, anxiety, depression, and disconnection across Georgia and the nation.
Georgia has thousands of young people living in kinship and relative care. Many of these young people are being raised outside the formal foster care system and receive little formal support despite experiencing many of the same challenges as youth involved in foster care.
“No teen should have to navigate life alone,” said Sarah Winograd, founder and executive director of Together with Families. “Many of these teens are carrying grief, instability, poverty, stress, and adult-sized responsibilities while still trying to be kids. KinRise exists so they do not have to carry it alone.”
KinRise was seeded by the Jesse Parker Williams Foundation and Bonnie Stewart Hardage as an investment in young people who are too often overlooked and disconnected from support.
“The Jesse Parker Williams Foundation is proud to support KinRise, a program of Together with Families, because it centers the voices, lived experiences, and wisdom of young people in both program design and delivery,” said Bonnie Stewart Hardage, executive director of the Jesse Parker Williams Foundation. “By empowering youth to help shape the support they receive, KinRise creates meaningful pathways for healing, resilience, and connection while helping young people strengthen their well-being, navigate difficult circumstances, and support their peers, families, and communities.”
KinRise was co-designed with teens living in relative and kinship care and will continue to be shaped by youth voice, family feedback, and the KinRise Advisory Council.
The program will be led by Ashley Saunders, a leader who was previously supported by Together with Families and was raised in both foster care and kinship care. Saunders brings lived experience, trust with teens, and a deep understanding of what it means for a young person to need stability, belonging, and adults who do not give up.
“Young people need people who see them, believe in them, and help them realize they are more than what happened to them,” Saunders said.
Every Tuesday night, teens will gather for dinner, leadership development, tutoring, mentorship, and honest conversations about life, stress, relationships, and their future. Dinner is provided weekly.
The program also includes access to a licensed counselor, outings, trusted adult mentors, academic help, and up to $500 in flexible assistance per youth to help remove barriers related to transportation, school needs, wellness, opportunities, and stability.
The program is designed to create not only support, but also joy, friendship, confidence, and hope for the future.
Angela Watson, who is raising her three granddaughters in kinship care, said one of the most meaningful parts of watching her granddaughters help develop the program last summer was seeing them begin to view themselves as leaders.
“They were able to interact with other kids going through the same thing,” Watson said. “Seeing their confidence come back was big.”
Together with Families believes communities must build more relationship-centered spaces for teens living in kinship and relative care before crises escalate into school disengagement, homelessness, system involvement, or deeper mental health struggles.
The organization hopes KinRise can become a model for how communities across Georgia support youth before they fall through the cracks.
Community leaders, schools, churches, businesses, volunteers, and local organizations attended Thursday’s ribbon cutting to celebrate the launch and explore ways to support the program.
The organization is currently seeking volunteers, mentors, tutors, meal sponsors, business partners, and community members who want to invest in teens across Cobb County.
“Too many teens are trying to survive without consistent support or connection,” Watson said. “KinRise reminds young people they matter, they belong, and they are not alone.”
About Together with Families
Together with Families is a Georgia-based nonprofit working to prevent foster care caused by poverty by supporting families through community-based, relationship-centered support.
For more information about KinRise or to get involved, visit:
https://www.together-families.org/kinrise
