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Over the past few years, Youth RISE facilitated two international working groups, one with young sex workers who use drugs, and another with young people who use opioids. Both groups were built on non-hierarchical, participatory, and collaborative processes where members were co-creators rather than mere participants, and also compensated for their expertise. Each group produced…

Written by Grace Mmesomachi Oji, Aggie Dennett Harmon, Claire Perry and Teresa Castro Every year on 12 August, the world celebrates International Youth Day with familiar calls to action and promises to youth: we are the future, that our voices matter, that young leaders are currently and will continue to change the world. Across social…

Written by João Barbosa Representing Youth RISE in Brazil, I attended the 2nd People’s Alliance Convening (PAC) in June, held in the historic city of Salvador, Bahia. The PAC is an informal dialogue forum among Global South organizations working on international drug policy advocacy. The convening brought together member organizations and partners from Brazil, Colombia,…

Consultancy Title: High Level Communications and Advocacy Programme Lead. Consultancy fee: $ 8,332 USD for 4 months (subject to extension depending on funding availability) Reports to: Executive Director. Location: Fully Remote, based/living anywhere. Background: Youth RISE is launching a call for applications to recruit a Core Team Consultant to lead our High Level Communications and…

“The [global] HIV response is no longer only facing a funding crisis; it is becoming a crisis of survival for many people who use drugs.” This warning from the Director of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), Anton Basenko, set the tone for Youth RISE’s participation this June and July at the…

For the second time, Youth RISE participated in the 35th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) that took place in Vienna, from 1st to 5th June. There, we participated in key informal dialogues with the heads of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the CCPCJ, while also…

Written by Ruby Rose Lawlor, Executive Director, Youth RISE Wednesday, 25 June 2026 (Dublin, Ireland) Yesterday, Ireland’s Joint Committee on Drugs Use published its Final Report, recommending that the State fully decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use and move decisively towards a health-led approach. Twice, first in 2024, and again in March 2026,…

Friday, March 14, 2026 (Vienna, Austria) – Between March 9th-13th, Youth RISE participated in the 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the most important drug policy making body of the United Nations. CND remains a space dominated by older generations who often determine policies on behalf of young people, a group that…