AT RAILROAD STREET, YOUTH TAKE THE LEAD. They explore their full potential and become equipped to meet the challenging transition to adulthood. RSYP’s professional staff expertly pairs youth-generated ideas with community resources, empowering youth to create and oversee a wide range of innovative, life-changing projects. Unmatched in mission and scope, RSYP excels in helping youth find their voice and realize the benefits of their commitment to themselves and their community.

The Youth Operational Board provides a space, financial resources, and opportunities for young people to experiment organizing events, planning trips, being community leaders, and so much more. Meeting are Tuesday's from 4-5pm.
[We Are...] a safe space.
[We are...] committed to empowering youth!
Looking to learn a new skill? Railroad Street to the rescue! Join the Railroad Street Apprenticeship Program and explore the worlds of culinary, photography, coding, theatre, and more! Contact caitlin@rsyp.org for more info!
[We Are...] a community.
[We Are...] positively ‘down with it’.

HIGH FIVE TO OUR NEWEST TEAM MEMBER!

We are excited to welcome a new addition to the RSYP family – Ari Cameron!

Ari joins us as the Youth Operational Board/Special Projects Coordinator (and a Sexual Health Education Facilitator). She has a lot of experience working in after-school programs, and she’s also an amazing poet!

To get to know her better, we her them five questions – and we’re sharing her answers with you!

1. How did you find RSYP?

Ari: I found RSYP after searching (for months!) for an awesome and dynamic youth development organization in Columbia/Dutchess/ Berkshire County. I was living in NYC at the time, working as a teaching artist and curriculum builder, and knew I needed a shift. After reading about RSYP and their mission, I was sold. After working for various other youth-centered non-profits, the follow through and integrity of this place is really impressive.

2. What’s the first thing you do when you get home from work?

Ari: I take off my shoes! And water my garden.

3. What was your childhood nickname?

Ari: Oof. I blush a lot and always have so my friends called me Tomato Face.

4. When was the last time you laughed really hard?

Ari: Over the summer I managed a teen farm camp in Columbia County. We had a really great session with 16 campers who got very close. On the second-to-last day, we decided we wanted to give them something, but didn’t want it to be an object or food – we wanted to give them an experience. So we split up into teams and asked the campers to turn a staff person into a woodland creature of some kind. They had an hour to cover us with mud, sticks, moss, leaves – anything they could find – and to create a convincing backstory and name for us. I could barely breathe I was laughing so hard (and because my mouth had dirt in it).

5. What things are you looking forward to most this fall?

Ari: I am super excited to start meeting people. I am planning some poetry events in collaboration with Monument Mountain High School staff and really looking forward to bringing that part of my life into the youth work I do here. I am also looking forward to having the opportunity to teach young people some of the important concepts around sexual health that I never got as a young person.

Welcome, Ari! We look forward to seeing great things from you!